The reminiscences of an astronomer

!l»'

^TNISCENCES
ASXaONQMER

iM NEWCOMB

Cornell University
Library

The original of tiiis bool< is in
tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 2299958

Cornell University Library
QB 36.N53A3

The reminiscences of an astronomer,

3 1924 012 299 958

THE REMINISCENCES OF AN
ASTRONOMER

ym{rK k/i^^u/<a^

THE EEMmiSCENCES

OF

AN ASTRONOMER

BY

SIMON NEWCOMB

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

€1)1 Uiatveine fjltects, CamitriDp
1903

tS

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY SIMON NEWCOMB
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published October, igos

PEEFACE

The earlier chapters of this collection are so much
in the nature of an autobiography that the author
has long shrunk from the idea of allowing them
to see the light during his lifetime. His repug-
nance has been overcome by very warm expres-
sions on the subject uttered by valued friends
to whom they were shown, and by a desire that
some at least who knew him in youth should be
able to read what he has written.

The author trusts that neither critic nor reader
will object because he has, in some cases, strayed
outside the limits of his purely personal experi-
ence, in order to give a more complete view of a
situation, or to bring out matters that might be
of historic interest. If some of the chapters are
scrappy, it is because he has tried to collect those
experiences which have afforded him most food for
thought, have been most influential in shaping his
views, or are recalled with most pleasure.

CONTENTS
I

The Wokld of Cold and Darekess

Ancestiy. — Squire Thomas Prince. — Paxentage. — Early Educa-
tion. — Books read 1

n

Dr. Foshay

A Long Journey on Foot. — A Wonderful Doctor. — The Botanic
System of Medicine. — Phrenology. — A Launch into the World.
— A Disillusion. — Life in Maryland. — Acquaintance with Pro-
fessor Henry. — Bemoval to Cambridge 23

m

The World op Sweetness and Light

The American Astronomical Ephemeris. — The Men who made it.
— Harvard in the Middle of the Century. — A Librarian of the
Time. — Professor Peirce. — Dr. Gould, the"AstronomioalJour-
nal," and the Dudley Observatory. — W. P. G. Bartlett. — John
D. Bunkle and the " Mathematical Monthly." — A Mathemati-
cal Politician. — A Trip to Manitoba and a Voyage up the Sas-
katchewan. — A Wonderful Star 62

IV

Life and Work at an Observatory

A Professor, United States Navy. — The Naval Observatory in
1861. — Captain Gilliss and his Plans. — Admiral Davis. — A
New Instrument and a New Departure. — Astronomical Activ-
ity. — The Question of Observatory Administration. — Visit
from the Emperor of Brazil. — Admiral John Rodgers. —
Efforts to improve the Work of the Observatory 97

viii CONTENTS

V

Gbeat Telescopes and their Wobk

Curious Origin of the Great Washington Telescope. — Congress is
induced to act. — A Case of Astronomical Fallibility. — The
Discovery of the Satellites of Mars. — The Great Telescope of
the Puliova Observatory. — Alvan Clark and his Sons. — A
Sad Astronomical Accident 128

VI

The Transits of Venus

Old Transits of Venus. — An Astronomical Expedition in the 18th
Century. — Father Hell and his Observations. — A Suspected
Forger vindicated. — The American Commission on the Tran-
sit of Venus. — The Photographic Method to be applied. —
Garfield and the Appropriation Committee. — Weather Uncer-
tainties. — Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. — The Transit
of 1882. — Out Failure to publish our Observations 151

vn

The Lick Observatory

James Lick and his Ideas. — Mr. D. O. Mills. — Flans for the Lick
Observatory. — Edward E. Barnard. — Professor Holden. —
Wonderful Success of the Observatory 182

vin

The Author's Scientific Work

The Orbits of the Asteroids. — The Problems of Mathematical
Astronomy. — The Motion of the Moon and its Perplexing
Inequalities. — A Visit to the Paris Observatory to search for
Forgotten Observations. — Wonderful Success in finding Them.
— The Paris Commune. — The History of the Moon's Motion
carried back a Century. — The Harvard Observatory. — The
"Nautical Almanac" Office and its Work. — Mr. George W.
Hill and his Work. — A Wonderful Algebraist. — The Meridian
Conference of 1884, and the Question of Universal Time. —
Tables of the Planets completed. — The Astronomical Con-
stants. — Work unfinished 195

CONTENTS ix

IX

Scientific Washington

Fiof essoT Henry and the Smithsonian Institution. — Alamni Asso-
ciations. — The Scientific Club. — General Sherman. — Mr. Hugh
McCulloch. — A Forgotten Scientist. — The National Academy
of Sciences. — The Geological Survey of the Territories. — The
Government Forestry System. — Professor O. C. Marsh. — Sci-
entific Humbugs. — Life on the Plains 234

X

Scientific England

My First Trip to Europe. — Mr. Thomas Hughes. — Mr. John
Stuart Mill. — Mr. Gladstone and the Koyal Society Dinner.

— Other Eminent Englishmen. — Professors Cayley and Adams.

— Professor Airy and the Greenwich Observatory. — A Visit
to Edinburgh 271

XI

Men and Things in EmtOPE

A Voyage to Gibraltar with Professor Tyndall. — The Great For-
tress. — " Whispering Boanerges." — A Winter Voyage in the
Mediterranean. — Malta and Messina. — Advantage of not un-
derstanding a Language. — German Astronomers. — The Pul-
kova Observatory. — A Meeting which might have been Em-
barrassing. — From Germany to Paris at the Close of the War.

— Experiences at Paris during the Commune. — The Greatest
Astronomer of France. — The Paris Observatory 302

XII

The Old and the New Washington

Washington during the Civil War. — Secretary Stanton. — The
Kaid of General Early. — A Presidential Levee in 1864. — The
Fall of Kichmond. — The Assassination of President Lincoln.

— Negro Traits and Education. — Senator Sumner. — An Am-
bitious Academy. — President Garfield and his Assassination. —
Cooling the White House during his Illness. — The Shepherd
K^gime in Washington 334

X CONTENTS

XIII

Miscellanea

The Great Star-Catalogue Case. — Professor Peters and the Alma-
gest of Ptolemy. — Scientific Cranks. — The Degrees of the
French Universities. — A Virginia Country School. — Political
Economy and Education. — Exact Science in America before
the Johns Hopkins University. — Professor Ely and Economics.
— Spiritualism and Psychic Research. — The Georgia Magnetic
Girl 372

THE REMINISCENCES OF AN
ASTRONOMER

THE REMINISCENCES OF AN
ASTRONOMER

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS

I DATE my birth into the world of sweetness and
light on one frosty morning in January, 1857, when
I took my seat between two well-known mathema-
ticians, before a blazing fire in the office of the
" Nautical Almanac " at Cambridge, Mass. I had
come on from Washington, armed with letters from
Professor Henry and Mr. HUgard, to seek a trial as
an astronomical computer. The men beside me
were Professor Joseph Winlock, the superintend-
ent, and Mr. John D. Eunkle, the senior assistant
in the office. I talked of my unsuccessful attempt
to master the " Mecanique Celeste " of Laplace
without other preparation than that afforded by
the most meagre text-books of elementary mathe-
matics of that period. Runkle spoke of the trans-
lator as " the Captain." So familiar a designation
of the great Bowditch — LL. D. and member of
the Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, and
Dublin — quite shocked me.

I was then in my twenty-second year, but it was
the first time I had ever seen any one who was

2 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

familiar with the " Mecanique Celeste." I looked
"with awe upon the assistants who filed in and out
as upon men who had all the mysteries of gravita-
tion and the celestial motions at their fingers' ends.
I should not have been surprised to learn that
even the Hibernian who fed the fire had imbibed
so much of the spirit of the place as to admire the
genius of Laplace and Lagrange. My own rank
was scarcely up to that of a tyro ; but I was a few
weeks later employed on trial as computer at a
salary of thirty dollars a month.

How could an incident so simple and an employ-
ment so humble be in itself an epoch in one's life
— an entrance into a new world ? To answer this
question some account of my early life is necessary.
The interest now taken in questions of heredity
and in the study of the growing mind of the child
may excuse a word about my ancestry and early
training.

Though born in Nova Scotia, I am of almost
pure New England descent. The first Simon
Newcomb, from whom I am of the sixth genera-
tion, was born in Massachusetts or Maine about
1666, and died at Lebanon, Conn., in 1745. His
descendants had a fancy for naming their eldest
sons after him, and but for the chance of my
father being a younger son, I should have been
the sixth Simon in unbroken lineal descent.*

Among my paternal ancestors none, so far as I

1 The actual sixth was my late excellent and esteemed cousin,
Judge Simon Bolivar Newcomb, of New Mexico.

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 3

know, with the exception of Elder Brewster, were
what we should now call educated men. Nor,
did any other of them acquire great wealth, hold
a high official position, or do anything to make
his name live in history. On my mother's side are
found New England clergymen and an English
nonconformist preacher, named Prince, who is said
to have studied at Oxford towards the end of the
seventeenth century, but did not take a degree.
I do not know of any college graduate in the
list.

Until I was four years old I lived in the house of
my paternal grandfather, about two miles from the
pretty little village of Wallace, at the mouth of
the river of that name. He was, I believe, a stone-
cutter by trade and owner of a quarry which has
since become important ; but tradition credits him
with unusual learning and with having at some
time taught school.

My maternal grandfather was " Squire " Thomas
Prince, a native of Maine, who had moved to
Moncton, N. B., early in life, and lived there the
rest of his days. He was an upright magistrate,
a Puritan in principle, and a pillar of the Baptist
Church, highly respected throughout the province.
He came from a long-lived family, and one so pro-
lific that it is said most of the Princes of New
England are descended from it. I have heard a
story of him which may illustrate the freedom of
the time in matters of legal proceedings before a
magistrate's court. At that time a party in a suit

4 THE EEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

could not be a witness. In the terse language of
the common people, " no man could swear money
into his own pocket." The plaintiff in the case
advised the magistrate in advance that he had no
legal proof of the debt, but that defendant freely
acknowledged it in private conversation.

" Well," said the magistrate, " bring him in here
and get him to talk about it while I am absent."

The time came.

"If you had n't sued me I would have paid you,"
said the defendant.

On the moment the magistrate stepped from
behind a door with the remark, —

" I think you will pay him now, whether or no."

My father was the most rational and the most
dispassionate of men. The conduct of his life was
guided by a philosophy based on Combe's " Con-
stitution of Man," and I used to feel that the law
of the land was a potent instrument in shaping his
paternal affections. His method of seeking a wife
was so far unique that it may not be devoid of
interest, even at this date. From careful study
he had learned that the age at which a man
should marry was twenty-five. A healthy and
well-endowed offspring should be one of the main
objects in view in entering the marriage state, and
this required a mentally gifted wife. She must be
of different temperament from his own and an eco-
nomical housekeeper. So when he found the age
of twenty-five approaching, he began to look about.
There was no one in Wallace who satisfied the

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 5

requirements. He therefore set out afoot to dis-
cover his ideal. In those days and regions the
professional tramp and mendicant were unknown,
and every farmhouse dispensed its hospitality with
an Arcadian simplicity little known in our times.
Wherever he stopped overnight he made a critical
investigation of the housekeeping, perhaps rising
before the family for this purpose. He searched
in vain until his road carried him out of the pro-
vince. One young woman spoiled any possible
chance she might have had by a lack of economy
in the making of bread. She was asked what she
did with an unnecessarily large remnant of dough
which she left sticking to the sides of the pan.
She replied that she fed it to the horses. Her case
received no further consideration.

The search had extended nearly a hundred miles
when, early one evening, he reached what was then
the small village of Moncton. He was attracted
by the strains of music from a church, went into
it, and found a religious meeting in progress. His
eye was at once arrested by the face and head of
a young woman playing on a melodeon, who was
leading the singing. He sat in such a position
that he could carefuUy scan her face and move-
ments. As he continued this study the conviction
grew upon him that here was the object of his
search. That such should have occurred before
there was any opportunity to inspect the dough-
pan may lead the reader to conclusions of his own.
He inquired her name — Emily Prince. He culti-

6 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTKONOMER

vated her acquaintance, paid his addresses, and
was accepted. He was fond of astronomy, and
during the months of his engagement one of his
favorite occupations was to take her out of an
evening and show her the constellations. It is
even said that, among the daydreams in which they
indulged, one was that their firsthorn might be an
astronomer. Probably this was only a passing
fancy, as I heard nothing of it during my child-
hood. The marriage was in all respects a happy
one, so far as congeniality of nature and mutual
regard could go. Although the wife died at the
early age of thirty-seven, the husband never ceased
to cherish her memory, and, so far as I am aware,
never again thought of marrying.

My mother was the most profoundly and sin-
cerely religious woman with whom I was ever in-
timately acquainted, and my father always enter-
tained and expressed the highest admiration for
her mental gifts, to which he attributed whatever
talents his children might have possessed. The
unfitness of her environment to her constitution
is the saddest memory of my childhood. More- 1
do not trust myself to say to the public, nor will
the reader expect more of me.

My father followed, during most of his life, the
precarious occupation of a country school teacher.
It was then, as it still is in many thinly settled
parts of the country, an almost nomadic profession,
a teacher seldom remaining more than one or two
years in the same place. Thus it happened that,

THE WORLD OP COLD AND DARKNESS 7

during the first fifteen years of my Kfe, movings
were frequent. My father tried his fortune in a
number of places, both in Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward Island. Our lot was made harder by the
fact that his ideas of education did not coincide
with those prevalent in the communities where he
taught. He was a disciple and admirer of William
Cobbett, and though he did not run so far counter
to the ideas of his patrons as to teach Cobbett's
grammar at school, he always recommended it to
me as the one by which alone I could learn to
write good English. The learning of anything,
especially of arithmetic and grammar, by the glib
repetition of rules was a system that he held in
contempt. With the public, ability to recite the
rules of such subjects as those went farther than
any actual demonstration of the power to cipher
correctly or write grammatically.

So far as the economic condition of society and
the general mode of living and thinking were con-
cerned, I might claim to have lived in the time of
the American Revolution. A railway was some-
thing read or heard about with wonder ; a steamer
had never ploughed the waters of Wallace Bay.
Nearly everything necessary for the daily life of
the people had to be made on the spot, and even at
home. The work of the men and boys was " from
sun to sun," — I might almost say from daylight
to darkness, — as they tilled the groimd, mended
the fences, or cut lumber, wood, and stone for ex-
port to more favored cHmes. The spinning wheel

8 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

and the loom were almost a necessary part of the
furniture of any well-ordered house ; the excep-
tions were among people rich enough to buy their
own clothes, or so poor and miserable that they
had to wear the cast-ofE rags of their more fortu-
nate neighbors. The women and girls sheared the
sheep, carded the wool, spun the yarn, wove the
homespun cloth, and made the clothes. In the
haying season they amused themselves by join-
ing in the raking of hay, in which they had to
be particularly active if rain was threatened ; but
any man would have lost caste who allowed wife
or daughter to engage in heavy work outside the
house.

The contrast between the social conditions and
those which surround even the poorest classes at
the present day have had a profound influence upon
my views of economic subjects. The conception
which the masses of the present time have of how
their ancestors lived in the early years of the cen-
tury are so vague and shadowy as not to influence
their conduct at the present time.

What we now call school training, the pursuit
of fixed studies at stated hours under the constant
guidance of a teacher, I could scarcely be said to
have enjoyed; For the most part, when I attended
my father's school at all, I came and went with
entire freedom, and this for causes which, as we
shall see, he had reasons for deeming good-
It would seem that I was rather precocious. I
was taught the alphabet by my aunts before I was

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 9

four years old, and I was reading the Bible in class
and beginning geography when I was six.

One curious feature of my reading I do not re-
member to have seen noticed in the case of chil-
dren. The printed words, for the most part,
brought no well-defined images to my mind ; none
at least that were retained in their connection. I
remember one instance of this. We were at Be-
deque, Prince Edward Island. During the absence
of my father, the school was kept for a time by Mr.
Bacon. The class in reading had that chapter in
the New Testament in which the treason of Judas
is described. It was then examined on the subject.
To the question what Judas did, no one could re-
turn an answer until it came my turn. I had a
vague impression of some one hanging himself, and
so I said quite at random that he hanged himseK.
It was with a quahn of conscience that I went to
the head of the class.

Arithmetic was commenced at the age of five,
my father drawing me to school day by day on a
little sled during the winter. Just what progress
I made at that time I do not recall. Long years
afterward, my father, at my request, wrote me a
letter describing my early education, extracts from
which I shall ask permission to reproduce, instead
of attempting to treat the matter myself. The
letter, covering twelve closely written foolscap
pages, was probably dashed off at a sitting with-
out supposing any eye but my own would ever
see it : —

10 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

June 8th, '58.

I will now proceed to write, according to your request,
about your early life.

While in your fifth year, your mother spoke several
times of the propriety of teaching you the first rudi-
ments of book-learning ; but I insisted that you should
not be taught the first letter until you became five.^ I
think, though, that at about four, or four and a half I
taught you to count, as far, perhaps, as 100.

When a little over four and a half, one evening, as
I came home from school, you ran to me, and asked,
"Father, is not 4 and 4 and 4 and 4, 16? " "Yes, how
did you find it out?" You showed me the counterpane
which was napped. The spot of four rows each way
was the one you had counted up. After this, for a week
or two, you spent a considerable number of hours every
day, making calculations in addition and multiplication.
The rows of naps being crossed and complexed in vari-
ous ways, your greatest delight was to clear them out,
find how many small ones were equal to one large one,
and such like. After a space of two or three weeks we
became afraid you would calculate yourseK " out of your
head," and laid away the counterpane.

Winter came, and passed along, and your birthday
came; on that day, having a light hand-sled prepared,
I fixed you on it, and away we went a mile and a half
to school.

According to my belief in educational matters "that
the slate should be put into the child's hands as soon as
the book is," you of course had your slate, and com-
menced making figures and letters the first day.

In all cases, after you had read and spelled a lesson,
and made some figures, and worked a sum, suppose one

^ He had evidently forgotten the home instruction from my
aunts, received more thau a year previous to the date he mentions.

THE WOKLD OF COLD AND DAKKNESS 11

hour's study, I sent you out, telling you to run about
and play a "good spell." To the best of my judgment
you studied, during the five months that this school
lasted, nearly four hours a day, two being at figures.

During the year that I taught at Bedeque, you stud-
ied about five hours a day in school; and I used to ex-
ercise you about an hour a day besides, either morning
or evening. This would make six hours per day, nearly
or quite two and a half hours of that time at numbers
either at your slate or mentally. When my school ended
here, you were six and a half years of age, and pretty
well through the arithmetic. You had studied, I think,
all the rules preceding including the cube root. . . .

I had frequently heard, during my boyhood, of
a supposed mental breakdown about this period,
and had asked my father for a description of it in
the letter from which I am quoting. On this sub-
ject the letter continues : —

You had lost all relish for reading, study, play, or
talk. Sat most of the day flat on the floor or hearth.
When sent of an errand, you would half the time forget
what you went for. I have seen you come back from
Cale Schurman's crying,^ and after asking you several
times. you would make out to answer, you had not been
all the way over because you forgot what you went for.
You would frequently jump up from the corner, and ask
some peculiar question. I remember three you asked
me.

^ The grandfather of President Schurman of Cornell University.
I retain a dreamy impression of two half-grown or nearly grown
boys, perhaps between fourteen and eighteen years of age, one of
whom became, I believe, the father of the president.

12 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

1st. Father, does form mean shape? Yes. Has
everything some shape ? Yes. Can it be possible for
anything to be made that would not have any shape?
I answered no; and then showed you several things, ex-
plaining that they all had some shape or form. You
now brightened up like a lawyer who had led on a witness
with easy questions to a certain point, and who had cau-
tiously reserved a thunderbolt question, to floor the wit-
ness at a proper time ; proceeded with, " Well, then, how
could the world be without form when God made it? "

3d. Does Cale Schurman's big ram know that he has
such big crooked horns on him? Does he know it him-
self, I mean? Does he know himself that he has such
horns on him?

You were taken down suddenly I think about two or
three days from the first symptoms until you were fairly
in the corner. Your rise was also rapid, I think about a
week (or perhaps two weeks) from your first at recovery,
until you seemed to show nothing unusual. From the
time you were taken down until you commenced recovery
was about a month.

We returned to Prince Edward Island, and after a
few weeks I began to examine you in figures, and found
you had forgotten nearly all you had ever learned.

While at New London I got an old work on Astron-
omy; you were wonderfully taken with it, and read it
with avidity. While here you read considerable in
"Goldsmith's History of England." We lived two
years in New London ; I think you attended school
nearly one year there. I usually asked you questions
on the road going to school, in the morning, upon the
history you had read, or something you had studied the
day previous. While there, you made a dozen or two of

THE WOKLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 13

the folks raise a terrible laugh. I one evening lectured
on astronomy at home ; the house was pretty well filled,
I suppose about twenty were present. You were not
quite ten years old and small at that. Almost as soon
as I was done you said: "Father, I think you were
wrong in one thing." Such a roar of laughter almost
shook the house.

You were an uncommon child for truth, I never
knew you to deviate from it in one single instance,
either in infancy or youth.

From your infancy you showed great physical courage
in going along the woods or in places in the dark among
cattle, and I am surprised at what you say about your
fears of a stove-pipe and trees.

Perhaps I should have said "mental" instead of phy-
sical courage, for in one respect you were uncommonly
deficient in that sort of courage necessary to perform
bodily labor. Until nine or ten years of age you made
a most pitiful attempt at any sort of bodily or rather
"handy " work.

An extraordinary peculiarity in you was never to leap
past a word you could not make out. I certainly never
gave you any particular instructions about this, or the
fact itself would not at the time have appeared so strange
to me. I will name one case. After a return to Wal-
lace (you were eleven) I, one day, on going from home
for an hour or so, gave you a borrowed newspaper, tell-
ing you there was a fine piece; to read it, and tell me
its contents when I returned. On my return you were
near the house chopping wood. " Well, Simon, did you
read the piece? " "No, sir." "Why not? " "I came
to a word I did not know." This word was just about
four lines from the commencement.

At thirteen you read Phrenology. I now often im-

14 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

pressed upon you the necessity of bodily labor ; that you
might attain a strong and healthy physical system, so
as to be able to stand long hours of study when you
came to manhood, for it was evident to me that you
would not labor with the hands for a business. On this
account, as much as on account of poverty, I hired you
out for a large portion of the three years that we lived
at Clements.

At fifteen you studied Euclid, and were enraptured
with it. It is a little singular that all this time you
never showed any self-esteem; or spoke of getting into
employment at some future day, among the learned.
The pleasure of intellectual exercise in demonstrating
or analyzing a geometrical problem, or solving an alge-
braic equation, seemed to be your only object. No
Junior, Seignour or Sophomore class, with annual hon-
ors, was ever, I suppose, presented to your mind.

Your almost intuitive knowledge of geography, navi-
gation, and nautical matters in general caused me to
think most ardently of writing to the Admiral at Hali-
fax, to know if he would give you a place among the
midshipmen of the navy; but my hope of seeing you
a leading lawyer, and finally a judge on the bench,
together with the possibility that your mother would
not consent, and the possibility that you would not wish
to go, deterred me: although I think I commenced a
letter.

Among the books which profoundly influenced
my mode of life and thought during the period
embraced in the foregoing extracts were Fowler's
" Phrenology " and Combe's " Constitution of
Man." It may appear strange to the reader if a
system so completely exploded as that of phreno-

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 15

logy should have any value as a mental discipline.
Its real value consisted, not in what it taught about
the position of the " organs," but in presenting a
study of human nature which, if not scientific in
form, was truly so in spirit. I acquired the habit
of looking on the characters and capabihties of
men as the result of their organism. A hot and
impulsive temper was checked by the reflection that
it was beneath the dignity of human nature to al-
low a rush of blood to the organs of " combative-
ness " and " destructiveness " to upset one's mental
equilibrium.

That I have gotten along in Kfe almost without
making (so far as I am aware) a personal enemy
may be attributed to this early discipline, which
led me into the habit of dealing vrith antagonism
and personal opposition as I would deal with any
physical opposition — evade it, avoid it, or over-
come it. It goes without saying, however, that no
discipline of this sort will avail to keep the pas-
sions of a youth always in check, and my own
were no exception. When about fifteen I once
made a great scandal by taking out my knife in
prayer meeting and assaulting a young man who,
while I was kneeUng down during the prayer, stood
above me and squeezed my neck. He escaped with
a couple of severe though not serious cuts in his
hand. He announced his intention of thrashing
me when we should meet again; so for several
days thereafter I tried, so far as possible, in go-
ing afield to keep a pitchfork within reach, deter-

16 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

mined that if he tried the job and I failed to kill
him, it would be because I was unable to do so.
Fortunately for both of us he never made the
attempt.

I read Combe's " Constitution of Man " when
between ten and twelve years of age. Though
based on the ideas of phrenology and not, I be-
lieve, of high repute as a system of philosophy,
it was as good a moral tonic as I can imagine to
be placed in the hands of a youth, however falla-
cious may have been its general doctrines. So far
as I can recall, it taught that all individual and
social ills were due to men's disregard of the laws
of Nature, which were classified as physical and
moral. Obey the laws of health and we and our
posterity will all reach the age of one hundred
years. Obey the moral law and social evils will
disappear. Its reading was accompanied by some
qualms of conscience, arising from the non-accord-
ance of many of its tenets with those of the '' Cate-
chism" and the "New England Primer." The
combination of the two, however, led to the opti-
mistic feeling that all wrongs would be righted,
every act of injustice punished, and truth and
righteousness eventually triumph through the regu-
lar processes of Nature and Society. I have been
led to abandon this doctrine only by much experi-
ence, some of which will be found in the following
pages.

In the direction of mathematical and physical
science and reading generally, I may add some-

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 17

thing to what I have quoted from my father. My
grandfather Simon had a small collection of books
in the family. Among those purely literary were
several volumes of " The Spectator " and " Eoder-
ick Random." Of the former I read a good deal.
The latter was a story which a boy who had scarcely
read any other would naturally follow with inter-
est. Two circumstances connected with the read-
ing, one negative and the other positive, I recall.
Looking into the book after attaining years of
maturity, I found it to contain many incidents of
a character that would not be admitted into a mod-
ern work. Yet I read it through without ever
noticing or retaining any impression of the indeli-
cate side of the story. The other impression was
a feeling of horror that a man fighting a duel and
finding himself, as he supposed, mortally wounded
by his opponent, should occupy his mind with
avenging his own death instead of making his
peace with Heaven.

Three mathematical books were in the collec-
tion, Hammond's Algebra, Simpsoii's Euclid, and
Moore's Navigator, the latter the predecessor of
Bowditch. The first was a miserable book, and I
think its methods, which were crude in the ex-
treme, though not incorrect, were rather more
harmful than beneficial. The queer diagrams in
Euclid had in my early years so Uttle attraction
for me that my curiosity never led me to examine
its text. I at length did so in consequence of a
passage in the algebra which referred to the 47th

18 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

proposition of the First Book. It occurred to me
to look into the book and see what this was. It
was the first conception of mathematical proof
that I had ever met with. I saw that the demon-
stration referred to a previous proposition, went
hack to that, and so on to the beginning. A new
world of thought seemed to be opened. That prin-
ciples so profound should be reached by methods
so simple was astonishing. I was so enraptured
that I explained to my brother Thomas while walk-
ing out of doors one day how the Pythagorean
proposition, as it is now called, could be proved
from first principles, drawing the necessary dia-
grams with a pencil on a piece of wood. I thought
that even cattle might understand geometry could
they only be communicated with and made to pay
attention to it.

Some one at school had a copy of Mrs. Marcet's
" Conversations on Natural Philosophy." With this
book I was equally enraptured. Meagre and even
erroneous though it was, it presented in a pleasing
manner the first principles of physical science. I
used to steal into the schoolhouse after hours to
read a copy of the book, which belonged to one
of the scholars, and hteraUy devoured it in a few
evenings.

My first undertaking in the way of scientific ex-
periment was in the field of economics and psycho-
logy. When about fourteen I spent the winter in
the house of an old farmer named Jefferson. He
and his wife were a very kindly couple and took

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS 19

much interest in me. He was fond of his pipe,
as most old farmers are. I questioned -whether
anything else would not do just as well as tobacco
to smoke, and whether he was not wasting his
money by buying that article when a cheap substi-
tute could be found. So one day I took his pipe,
removed the remains of the tobacco ashes, and
stuffed the pipe with tea leaves that had been
steeped, and which in color and general appearance
looked much like tobacco. I took care to be around
when he should again smoke. He lit the pipe as
usual and smoked it with, seemingly, as much sat-
isfaction as ever, only essaying the remark, " This
tobacco tastes like tea." My conscience pricked
me, but I could say nothing.

My father bought a copy of Lardner's " Popular
Lectures on Science and Art." In this I first read
of electricity. I recall an incident growing out of
it. In Lardner's description of a Leyden jar, water
is the only internal conductor. The wonders of
the newly invented telegraph were then explained
to the people in out of the way places by traveUng
lecturers. One of these came to Clements, where
we then Kved, with a lot of apparatus, amongst
which was what I recognized as a Leyden jar. It
was coated with tin-foil on the outside, but I did
not see the inner coating, or anything which could
serve as the necessary conductor. So with great
diffidence I asked the lecturer while he was arran-
ging his things, if he was not going to put water
into the jar.

20 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

" No, my lad," was his reply, " I put lightning
into it."

I wondered how the " lightning " was going to
be conveyed to the interior surface of the glass
without any conductor, such as water, but was too
much abashed to ask the question.

Moore's " Navigator " taught not only a very
crude sort of trigonometry, but a good deal about
the warship of his time. To a boy living on the
seacoast, who naturally thought a ship of war one
of the greatest works of man, the book was of much
interest.

Notwithstanding the intellectual pleasure which
I have described, my boyhood was on the whole
one of sadness. Occasionally my love of books
brought a word of commendation from some visi-
tor, perhaps a Methodist minister, who patted me
on the head with a word of praise. Otherwise it
caused only exclamations of wonder which were
distasteful.

" You would n't believe what larnin' that boy
has got. He has more larnin' than all the people
around here put together," I heard one farmer say
to another, looking at me, in my own view of the
case, as if I were some monster misshapen in the
womb. Instead of feeling that my bookish taste
was something to be valued, I looked upon myself
as a lusus naturae whom Nature had cruelly formed
to sufEer from an abnormal constitution, and la-
mented that somehow I never could be like other
boys.

THE WORLD OP COLD AND DARKNESS 21

The maladroitness described by my father, of
which I was fully conscious, added to the feeUng
of my unfitness for the world around me. The
sMll required on a farm was above my reach,
where efficiency in driving oxen was one of the
most valued of accomplishments. I keenly felt
my inability to acquire even respectable mediocrity
in this branch of the agricultural profession. It
was mortifying to watch the dexterous motions of
the whip and listen to the torrent of imperatives
with which a young farmer would set a team of
these stolid animals in motion after they had
failed to respond to my gentle requests, though
conveyed in the best of ox language.

I had indeed gradually formed, from reading, a
vague conception of a different kind of world, —
a world of Hght, — where dwelt men who wrote
books and people who knew the men who wrote
books, — where Hved boys who went to college and
devoted themselves to learning, instead of driving
oxen. I longed much to get into this world, but
no possibility of doing so presented itself. I had
no idea that it would be imbued with sympathy
for a boy outside of it who wanted to learn. True,
I had once read in some story, perhaps fictitious,
how a nobleman had found a boy reading Newton's
"Principia," and not only expressed his pleased
surprise at the performance, but actually got the
boy educated. But there was no nobleman in
sight of the backwoods of Nova Scotia. I read in
the autobiography of Franklin how he had made

22 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

his way in life. But he was surrounded with op-
portunities from which I was cut off. It does seem
a Kttle singular that, well known as my tastes were
to those around me, we never met a soul to say,
" That boy ought to be educated." So far as I
know, my father's idea of making me a lawyer met
with nothing but ridicule from the neighbors. Did
not a lawyer have to know Latin and have money
to pursue his studies? In my own daydreams I
was a farmer driving his own team ; in my mother's
a preacher, though she had regretfully to admit
that I might never be good enough for this pro-
fession.

n

DOCTOR FOSHAY

In the summer of 1851, when I had passed the
age of sixteen, we Uved in a little school district a
mile or two from the town of Yarmouth, N. S.
Late in the summer we had a visit from a maternal
uncle and aunt. As I had not seen Moncton since
I was six years old, and as I wanted very much to
visit my grandfather Prince once more, it was ar-
ranged that I should accompany them on their
return home. An additional reason for this was
that my mother's health had quite failed; there
was no prospect of my doing anything where I was,
and it was hoped that something might turn up at
Moncton. There was but one difficulty ; the vis-
itors had driven to St. John in their own little car-
riage, which would hold only two people ; so they
could not take me back. I must therefore find my
own way from St. John to Moncton.

We crossed the Bay of Fundy in a Uttle sailing
vessel. Among the passengers was an English
ship captain who had just been wrecked off the
coast of Newfoundland, and had the saved rem-
nant of his crew with him. On the morning of
our departure the weather was stormy, so that our

24 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

vessel did not put to sea — a precaution for which
the captain passenger expressed great contempt.
He did not understand how a vessel should delay
going to sea on account of a little storm.

The walk of one hundred miles from St. John
to Moncton was for me, at that time, a much less
formidable undertaking than it would appear in
our times and latitude. A thirty-mile tramp was
a bagatelle, and houses of entertainment — farm-
houses where a traveler could rest or eat for a few
pennies — were scattered along the road. But
there was one great difficulty at the start. My in-
structions had been to follow the telegraph wires.
I soon found that the Une of telegraph came into
the town from one direction, passed through it, and
then left, not in the opposite direction, but perhaps
at right angles to it. In which direction was the
line to be followed? It was difficult to make
known what I wanted. " Why, my boy, you can't
walk to Moncton," was one answer. In a shop the
clerks thought I wanted to ride on the telegraph,
and, with much chuckling, directed me to the tele-
graph office where the man in charge would send
me on. I tried in one direction which I thought
could not be right, then I started ofE in the oppo-
site one; but it soon became evident that that
branch led up the river to Frederickton. So I
had to retrace my steps and take the original line,
which proved to be the right one.

The very first night I found that my grand-
father's name was one to conjure with. I passed it

DOCTOR FOSHAY 2$

with a hearty old farmer -who, on learning who I
was, entertained me with tales of Mr. Prince. The
quality which most impressed the host was his enor-
mous physical strength. He was rather below the
usual stature and, as I remember him, very slightly
built. Yet he could shoulder a barrel of flour and
lift a hogshead of molasses on its end, feats of
strength which only the most powerful men in the
region were equal to.

On reaching my destination, I was not many days
in learning that my grandfather was a believer in
the maxims of " Poor Richard's Almanac," and dis-
approved of the aimless way in which I had been
bred. He began to suggest the desirableness of
my learning to do something to make a living. I
thought of certain mechanical tastes which had
moved me in former years to whittle and to make
a reel on which to wind yarn, and to mend things
generally. So I replied that I thought the trade of
a carpenter was the one I could most easily learn.
He approved of the idea, and expressed the inten-
tion of finding a carpenter who would want my
services ; but before he did so, I was started in a
new and entirely different direction.

On her last visit to her birthplace, my mother
brought back glowing reports of a wonderful phy-
sician who lived near Moncton and effected cures
of the sick who had been given up by other doctors.
I need hardly remark that physicians of wonderful
proficiency — Diomeds of the medical profession,
before whose shafts all forms of disease had to fall

26 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

— were then very generally supposed to be realities.
The point which specially commended Dr. Foshay
to us was that he practiced the botanic system of
medicine, which threw mineral and all other poi-
sons out of the materia medica and depended upon
the healing powers of plants alone. People had
seen so much of the evil effects of calomel, this
being the favorite alterative of the profession, that
they were quite ready to accept the new system.
Among the remarkable cures which had given Dr.
Foshay his great reputation was one of a young
man with dyspepsia. He was reduced to a shadow,
and the regular doctors had given him up as incur-
able. The new doctor took him to his home. The
patient was addicted to two practices, both of which
had been condemned by his former medical advis-
ers. One was that of eating fat pork, which he
would do at any hour of the day or night. The
new doctor allowed him to eat all he wanted. An-
other was getting up in the night and practicing an
ablution of the stomach by a method too heroic to
be described in anything but a medical treatise.^ He
was now allowed to practice it to his heart's content.
The outcome of the whole proceeding was that he
was well in a few months, and, when I saw him,
was as lusty a youth as one could desire to meet.

* I may remark, for the benefit of any medical reader, that it
involved the use of two pails, one full of water, the other empty.
When he got through the ablution, one pail was empty, and the
other full. My authority for the actuality of this remarkable pro-
ceeding was some inmate of the house at the time, and I give cre-
dence to the story because it was not one likely to be invented.

DOCTOR FOSHAY 27

Before Mr. Prince could see a carpenter, he was
taken ill. I was intensely interested to learn that
his physician was the great doctor I had heard of,
who lived in the village of Salisbury, fifteen miles
on the road to St. John,

One of my aunts had an impression that the
doctor wanted a pupil or assistant of some kind,
and suggested that a possible opening might here
be offered me. She promised to present me to the
doctor on his next visit, after she had broached the
subject to him.

The time for which I waited impatiently at length
arrived. Never before had I met so charming a
man. He was decidedly what we should now call
magnetic. There was an intellectual flavor in his
talk which was quite new to me. What fascinated
me most of all was his speaking of the difficulties
he encountered in supplying himself with sufficient
" reading matter." He said it as if mental food
was as much a necessity as his daily bread. He
was evidently a denizen of that world of Kght
which I had so long wished to see. He said that
my aunt was quite right in her impression, and our
interview terminated in the following Hberal pro-
position on his part : —

S. N. to Uve with the doctor, rendering him all
the assistance in his power in preparing medicines,
attending to business, and doing generally whatever
might be required of him in the way of help.

The doctor, on his part, to supply S. N.'s bodily
needs in food and clothing, and teach him medical

28 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

botany and the botanic system of medicine. The
contract to terminate Avhen the other party should
attain the age of twenty-one.

After mentioning the teaching clause, he cor-
rected himself a moment, and added : " At least
all I know about it."

AU he knows about it ! What more could heart
desire or brain hold ?

The brilliancy of the offer was dimmed by only
a single consideration ; I had never felt the slight-
est taste for studying medicine or caring for the
sick. That my attainments in the line could ever
equal those of my preceptor seemed a result too
hopeless to expect. But, after all, something must
be done, and this was better than being a car-
penter.

Before entering upon the new arrangement, a
ratification was required on both sides. The doc-
tor had to make the necessary household arrange-
ments, and secure the consent of his wife. I had
to ask the approval of my father, which I did by
letter. Like General Grant and many great men,
he was a man of exceptional sagacity in matters
outside the range of his daily concerns. He threw
much cold water on the scheme, but consented to
my accepting the arrangement temporarily, as there
was nothing better to be done.

I awaited the doctor's next visit with glowing
anticipation. In due course of time I stepped with
him into his gig for the long drive, expecting
nothing less on the journey than a complete out-

DOCTOR FOSHAY 29

line of the botanic system of medicine and a pro-
gramme of my future studies. But scarcely had
we started when a chilling process commenced.
The man erstwhile so efEusive was silent, cold, im-
passive, — a marble statue of his former self. I
scarcely got three sentences out of him during the
journey, and these were of the most commonplace
kind. Could it be the same man ?

There was something almost frightful in being
alongside a man who knew so much. When we
reached our destination the horse had to be put
away in the stable. I jumped up to the haymow
to throw down the provender. It was a very pe-
culiar feeling to do so under the eye of a man
who, as he watched me, knew every muscle that I
was setting in operation.

A new chill came on when we entered the house
and I was presented to its mistress.

" So you 're the boy that 's come to work for
the doctor, are you ? "

" I have come to study with him, ma'am," was
my interior reply, but I was too diffident to say
it aloud. Naturally the remark made me very
uncomfortable. The doctor did not correct her,
and evidently must have told her something differ-
ent from what he told me. Her tone was even
more depressing than her words ; it breathed a
coldness, not to say harshness, to which I had not
been accustomed in a woman. There was nothing
in her appearance to lessen the unpleasant impres-
i^on. Small in stature, with florid complexion,

30 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

wide cheek bones that gave her face a triangular
form, she had the eye and look of a well-trained
vixen.

As if fate were determined to see how rapid my
downfall should be before the close of the day, it
continued to pursue me. I was left alone for a few •
minutes. A child some four years old entered and
made a very critical inspection of my person. The
result was clearly unfavorable, for she soon asked
me to go away. Finding me indisposed to obey
the order, she proceeded to the use of force and
tried to expel me with a few strong pushes. When
I had had enough of this, I stepped aside as she
was making a push. She fell to the floor, then
picked herself up and ran off crying, " Mamma."
The latter soon appeared with added ire infused
into her countenance.

" What did you hit the child for ? "

" I did n't hit her. What should I want to
strike a child like that for ? "

"But she says you hit her and knocked her
down."

" I did n't, though — she was trying to push me
and fell and hurt herself."

A long piercing look of doubt and incredulity
followed.

"Strange, very strange. I never knew that
child to teU a lie, and she says you struck her."

It was a new experience — the first time I had
ever known my word to be questioned.

During the day one thought dominated all

DOCTOR FOSHAT 31

others : -where are those treasures of Hterature
which, rich though they are, fail to satisfy their
owner's voracious intellectual appetite ? As houses
were then built, the living and sleeping rooms
were all on one main floor. Here they comprised
a kitchen, dining room, medicine room, a little
parlor, and two small sleeping rooms, one for the
doctor and one for myself. Before many hours
I had managed to see the interior of every one
except the doctor's bedroom, and there was not
a sign of a book imless such common ones as a
dictionary or a Bible. What could it all mean ?

Next day the darkuess was illuminated, at least
temporarily, by a ray of light. The doctor had
been absent most of the day before on a visit to
some distant patient. Now he came to me and
told me he wanted to show me how to make bilious
powders. Several trays of dried herbs had been
drying under the" kitchen stove until their leaves
were quite brittle. He took these and I followed
him to the narrow stairway, which we slowly as-
cended, he going ahead. As I mounted I looked
for a solution of the difficulty. Here upstairs must
be where the doctor kept his books. At each step
I peered eagerly ahead until my head was on a
level with the floor. Rafters and a window at
the other end had successively come into view and
now the whole interior was visible. Nothing was
there but a loft, at the further end of which was a
bed for the housemaid. The floor was strewn with
dried plants. Nothing else was visible. The dis-

32 THE EEMimSCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

illusion seemed complete. My heart sank within
me.

On one side of the stairway at a level with the
floor was screwed a large coffee mill. The doctor
spread a sheet of paper out on the floor on the
other side, and laid a fine sieve upon it. Then he
showed me how to grind the dry and brittle leaves
in the coffee mill, put them into the sieve, and sift
them on the paper. This work had a scientific
and professional look which infused a ghmmer of
light into the Cimmerian darkness. The bilious
powders were made of the leaves of four plants
familiarly known as spearmint, sunflower, smart-
weed, and yarrow. In his practice a heaping tea-
spoonful of the pulverized leaves was stirred in a
cup of warm water and the grosser parts were
allowed to settle, while the patient took the finer
parts with the infusion. This was one of Dr.
Foshay's staple remedies. Another was a pill of
which the principal active ingredient was aloesi
The art of making these pills seemed yet more
scientific than the other, and I was much pleased
to find how soon I could master it. Beside these
a number of minor remedies were kept in the
medicine room. Among them were tinctures of
lobeUa, myrrh, and capsicum. There was also a
pill box containing a substance which, from its
narcotic odor, I correctly inferred to be opium.
This drug being prohibited by the Botanic School
I could not but feel that Dr. Foshay's orthodoxy
was painfully open to question.

DOCTOR FOSHAY 33

Determined to fathom the mystery in which the
doctor's plans for my improvement were involved,
I announced my readiness to commence the study
of the botanic system. He disappeared in the
direction of his bedroom, and soon returned with
— could my eyes believe it ? — a big book. It
was one which, at the time of its publication, some
thirty or forty years before, was well known to the
profession, — Miner and Tally on the " Fevers of
the Connecticut Valley." He explained bringing
me this book.

"Before beginning the regular study of the
botanic system, you must understand something of
the old system. You can do so by reading this
book."

A duller book I never read. There was every
sort of detail about different forms of fever, which
needed different treatment; yet calomel and, I
think, opium were its main prescriptions. In due
time I got through it and reported to my pre-
ceptor.

" Well, what do you think of the. book ? "

" It praises calomel and opium too much. But
I infer from reading it that there are so many
kinds of fever and other diseases that an immense
amount of study will be required to distinguish
and treat them."

" Oh, you will find that all these minute distinc-
tions are not necessary when we treat the sick on-
the botanic system."

" What is the next thing for me ? Can I not

34 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

now go on with the study of the botanic sys-
tem?"

" You are not quite ready for it yet. You must
first understand something about phrenology.
One great difference between us and doctors of
the old school is that they take no account of
difference of temperament, but treat the lymphatic
and bilious in the same way. But we treat accord-
ing to the temperament of the patient and must
therefore be expert in distinguishing tempera-
ments."

" But I studied phrenology long ago and think
I understand it quite well."

He was evidently surprised at this statement,
but after a little consideration said it was very
necessary to be expert in the subject, and thought
I had better learn it more thoroughly. He re-
turned to his bedroom and brought a copy of
Fowler's " Phrenology," the very book so familiar
to me. I had to go over it again, and did so very
carefully, paying special attention to the study of
the four temperaments, — nervous, bilious, lym-
phatic, and sanguine.

Before many days I again reported progress.
The doctor seemed a little impatient, but asked me
some questions about the position of the organs
and other matters pertaining to the subject, which
I answered promptly and correctly by putting my
fingers on them on my own head. But though
satisfied with the answers, it was easy to see that
he was not satisfied with me. He had, on one or

DOCTOR FOSHAY 35

two previous occasions, intimated that I was not
■wise and prudent in worldly matters. Now he
expressed himself more plainly.

" This world is all a humbug, and the biggest
humbug is the best man. That 's the Yankee doc-
trine, and that 's the reason the Yankees get along
so well. You have no organ of secretiveness.
You have a window in your breast that every one
can look into and see what you are thinking about.
You must shut that window up, like I do. No one
can teU from my talk or looks what I am thinking
about."

It may seem incredible to the reader that I mar-
veled much at the hidden meaning of this allegor-
ical speech, and never for one moment supposed
it to mean : " I, Dr. Foshay, with my botanic sys-
tem of medicine, am the biggest humbug in these
parts, and if you are going to succeed with me
you must be another." But I had already recog-
nized the truth of his last sentence. Probably
neither of us had heard of Talleyrand, but from
this time I saw that his hearty laugh and Hvely
talk were those of a manikin.

His demeanor toward me now became one of
complete gravity, formality, and silence. He was
always kindly, but never said an unnecessary word,
and avoided all reference to reading or study.
The mystery which enveloped him became deeper
month after month. In his presence I felt a cer-
tain awe which prevented my asking any questions
as to his intentions toward me.

36 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

It must, of course, be a matter of lifelong re-
gret that two years so important in one's edu-
cation should have been passed in such a way,
— stiU, they were not wholly misspent. From
a teacher named Monroe,^ who then Hved near
Salisbury, I borrowed Draper's Chemistry, little
thinking that I would one day count the author
among my friends. A book peddler going his
rounds offered a collection of miscellaneous books
at auction. I bought, among others, a Latin and
a Greek grammar, and assiduously commenced their
study. With the first I was as successful as could
be expected under the circumstances, but failed
with the Greek, owing to the unfamiliarity of the
alphabet, which seemed to be an obstacle to mem-
ory of the words and forms.

But perhaps the greatest event of my stay was
the advent of a botanic druggist of Boston, who
passed through the region with a large wagonload
of medicines and some books. He was a pleasant,
elderly gentleman, and seemed much interested on
learning that I was a student of the botanic system.
He had a botanic medical college in or near Bos-
ton, and strongly urged me to go thither as soon
as I could get ready to complete my studies. From
him the doctor, wUling to do me a favor, bought
some books, among them the " Eclectic Medical
Dispensary," published in Cincinnati. Of this

1 Rev. Alexander H. Monroe, who, I have understood, afterward
lived in Montreal. I have often wished to find a trace of him, hut
do not know whether he is still living.

DOCTOR FOSHAY 37

book the doctor spoke approvingly, as founded on
the true system which he himself practiced, and
though I never saw him read it, he was very ready
to accept the knowledge which I derived from it.
The result was quite an enlargement of his materia
medica, both in the direction of native plants and
medicines purchased from his druggist.

On one occasion this advance came near having
serious consequences. I had compounded some
pills containing a minute quantity of elaterium.
The doctor gave them to a neighboring youth af-
fected with a slight indisposition in which some
such remedy was indicated. The directions were
very explicit, — one pill every hour until the de-
sired efEect was produced.

" Pshaw," said the patient's brother, " there 's
nothin' but weeds in them pills, and a dozen of
them won't hurt you."

The idea of taking weed pills one at a time
seemed too ridiculous, and so the whole number
were swallowed at a dose. The result was, hap-
pily, not fatal, though impressive enough to greatly
increase the respect of the young man's family for
our medicines.

The intellectual life was not wholly wanting in
the village. A lodge of a temperance organization,
having its headquarters in Maine, was formed at a
neighboring village. It was modeled somewhat
after the fashion of the Sons of Temperance. The
presiding ofBcer, with a high sounding title, was my
mother's cousin, Tommy Nixon. He was the most

38 THE EEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

popular young man of the neighborhood. The rudi-
ments of a classical education gained at a repu-
table academy in SackviUe had not detracted from
his qualities as a healthy, rollicking young farmer.
The lodge had an imposing ritual of which I well
remember one feature. At stated intervals a pass-
word which admitted a member of any one lodge to
a meeting of any other was received from the central
authority — in Maine, I beUeve. It was never to
be pronounced except to secure admission, and was
communicated to the members by being written on
a piece of paper in letters so large that all could
read. After being held up to view for a few mo-
ments, the paper was held in the flame of a candle
with these words: "This paper containing our
secret password I commit to the devouring element
in token that it no longer exists save in the minds
of the faithful brethren." The fine sonorous voice
of the speaker and his manly front, seen in the
lurid light of the burning paper, made the whole
scene very impressive.

There was also a society for the discussion of
scientific questions, of which the founder and
leading spirit was a youth named Isaac Steves,
who was beginning the study of medicine. The
president was a " Worthy Archon." Our discus-
sions strayed into the field of physiological mys-
teries, and got us into such bad odor with Mrs.
Foshay and, perhaps, other ladies of the commu-
nity, that the meetings were abandoned.

A soil like that of the Provinces at this time was

DOCTOR FOSHAT 39

fertile in odd characters including, possibly, here
and there, a " heart pregnant with celestial fire."
One case quite out of the common line was that
of two or three brothers employed in a sawmill
somewhere up the river Petticodiac. According to
common report they had invented a new language
in order to enable them to talk together without
their companions knowing what they were saying.
I knew one of them well and, after some time, ven-
tured to inquire about this supposed tongue. He
was quite ready to explain it. The words were
constructed out of English by the very simple pro-
cess of reversing the syllables or the spelling.
Everything was pronounced backward. Those who
heard it, and knew the key, had no difficulty in
construing the words ; to those who did not, the
words were quite foreign.

The family of the neighborhood in which I was
most intimate was that of a Scotch farmer named
Parkin. Father, mother, and children were very
attractive, both socially and intellectually, and in
later years I wondered whether any of them were
still living. Fifty years later I had one of the
greatest and most agreeable surprises of my life
in suddenly meeting the little boy of the fam-
ily in the person of Dr. George R. Parkin, the
well-known promoter of imperial federation in Aus-
tralia and the agent in arranging for the Ehodes
scholarships at Oxford which are assigned to
America.

My duties were of the most varied character. I

40 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTKONOMER

composed a Kttle couplet designating my profes-
sions as those of

Physician, apothecary, chemist, and druggist,
Girl about house and boy in the bam.

I cared for the horse, cut wood for the fire,
searched field and forest for medicinal herbs, or-
dered other medicines from a druggist ^ in St. John,
kept the doctor's accounts, made his pills, and mixed
his powders. This left little time for reading and
study, and such exercises were still farther limited
by the necessity of pursuing them out of sight of
the housewife.

As time passed on, the consciousness that I was
wasting my growing years increased. I long cher-
ished a vague hope that the doctor could and would
do something to promote my growth into a physi-
cian, especially by taking me out to see his patients.
This was the recognized method of commencing
the study of medicine. But he never proposed
such a course to me, and never told me how he ex-
pected me to become a physician. Every month
showed my prospects in a less hopeful light. I
had rushed into my position in blind confidence in
the man, and without any appreciation of the re-
quirements of a medical practitioner. But these
requirements now presented themselves to my mind
with constantly increasing force. Foremost among
them was a knowledge of anatomy, and how could
that be acquired except at a medical school ? It

* Our druggist was Mr. S. L. Tilley, afterward Sir Leonard Til-
ley, the well-known Canadian Minister of Finance.

DOCTOR FOSHAY 41

was every day more evident that if I continued in
my position I should reach my majority without
being trained for any life but that of a quack.

While in this state of perplexity, an event hap-
pened which suggested a way out. One day the
neighborhood was stirred by the news that Tommy
Nixon had run away — left his home without the
consent of his parents, and sailed for the gold
fields of Australia. I was struck by the absence
of any word of reprobation for his act. The young
men at least seemed to admire the enterprising
spirit he had displayed. A few weeks after his
departure a letter which he wrote from London,
detailing his adventures in the great metropolis,
was read in my presence to a circle of admiring
friends with expressions of wonder and surprise.
This little circumstance made it clear to me that
the easiest way out of my difficulty was to cut the
Gordian knot, run away from Dr. Foshay, and join
my father in New England.

No doubt the uppermost question in the mind
of the reader will be : Why did you wait so long
without having a clear understanding with the doc-
tor? Why not ask him to his face how he ex-
pected you to remain with him when he had failed
in his pledges, and demand that he should either
keep them or let you go ?

One answer, perhaps the first, must be lack of
moral courage to face him with such a demand. I
have already spoken of the mystery which seemed
to enshroud his personality, and of the fascination

42 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

which, through it, he seemed to exercise over me.
But behind this was the conviction that he could
not do anything for me were he ever so well dis-
posed. That he was himseU uneducated in many
essentials of his profession had gradually become
plain enough ; but what he knew or possibly might
know remained a mystery. I had heard occasional
allusions, perhaps from Mrs. Foshay rather than
from himself, to an institution supposed to be in
Maine, where he had studied medicine, but its
name and exact location were never mentioned.
Altogether, i£ I told him of my intention, it could
not possibly do any good, and he might be able to
prevent my carrying it out, or in some other way
to do much harm. And so I kept silent.

Tuesday, September 13, 1853, was the day on
which I fixed for the execution of my plan. The
day previous I was so abstracted as to excite re-
marks both from Mrs. Foshay and her girl help,
the latter more than once declaring me crazy when
I made some queer blunder. The fact is I was
oppressed by the feeling that the step about to be
taken was the most momentous of my life. I
packed a few books and clothes, including some
mementoes of my mother, and took the box to the
stage and post-office in the evening, to be for-
warded to an assumed name in St. John the next
afternoon. This box I never saw again ; it was
probably stopped by Foshay before being dis-
patched. My plan was to start early in the morn-
ing, walk as far as I could during the day, and, in

DOCTOR FOSHAY 43

the evening, take the mail stage when it should
overtake me. This course was necessitated by the
fact that the little money that I had in my pocket
was insufficient to pay my way to Boston, even
when traveling in the cheapest way.

I thought it only right that the doctor should be
made acquainted with my proceeding and my rea-
son for taking it, so I indited a short letter, which
I tried to reproduce from memory ten years later
with the following result : —

Deae Doctok, — I write this to let you know of
the step I am about to take. When I came to live with
you, it was agreed that you should make a physician of
me. This agreement you have never shown the slightest
intention of fulfilling since the first month I was with
you. You have never taken me to see a patient, you
have never given me any instruction or advice whatever.
Beside this, you must know that your wife treats me in
a manner that is no longer bearable.

I therefore consider the agreement annulled from
your failure to fulfill your part of it, and I am going off
to make my own way in the world. When you read
this, I shall be far away, and it is not likely that we
shall ever meet again.

If my memory serves me right, the doctor was
absent on a visit to some distant patient on the
night in question, and I did not think it likely that
he would return until at least noon on the follow-
ing day. By this time my box would have been
safely ofE in the stage, and I would be far out of
reach. To delay his receiving the letter as much
as possible, I did not leave it about the house, but

44 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

put it in the window of a shop across the way,
which served the neighbors as a little branch post-
office.

But he must have returned sooner than I ex-
pected, for, to my great regret, I never again saw
or heard of the box, which contained, not only the
entire outfit for my journey, but all the books of
my childhood which I had, as well as the little
mementoes of my mother. The postmaster who
took charge of the goods was a Mr. Pitman.
When I again passed through SaHsbury, as I did
ten years later, he had moved away, no one could
tell me exactly where.

I was on the road before daybreak, and walked
till late at night, occasionally stopping to bathe
my feet in a brook, or to rest for a few minutes in
the shadow of a tree. The possibihty of my being
pursued by the doctor was ever present to my mind,
and led me to keep a sharp lookout for coming
vehicles. Toward sunset a horse and buggy ap-
peared, coming over a hill, and very soon the re-
semblance of vehicle and driver to the turnout of
the doctor became so striking that I concealed
myself in the shrubbery by the wayside until the
sound of the wheels told me he was well past.
The probabiUty that my pursuer was in front of
me was an added source of discomfort which led
me to avoid the road and walk in the woods wher-
ever the former was not visible to some distance
ahead. But I neither saw nor heard anything
more of the supposed pursuer, though, from what

DOCTOR FOSHAY 45

I afterward learned, there can be little doubt that
it was actually Foshay himself.

The advent of darkness soon relieved me of the
threatened danger, but added new causes of soHci-
tude. The evening advanced, and the lights in
the windows of the houses were becoming fewer
and fewer, and yet the stage had not appeared. I
slackened my pace, and made many stops, begin-
ning to doubt whether I might not as well give up
the stage and look for an inn. It was, I think,
after ten o'clock when the rattling of wheels an-
nounced its approach. It was on a descending
grade, and passed me like a meteor, in the dark-
ness, quite heedless of my calls and gesticulations.
Fortunately a house was in sight where I was hos-
pitably entertained, and I was very soon sound
asleep, as became one who had walked fifty miles
or more since daylight.

Thus ended a day to which I have always looked
back as the most memorable of my life. I felt
its importance at the time. As I walked and
walked, the question in my mind was, what am I
doing and whither am I going? Am I doing
right or wrong ? Am I going forward to success
in life, or to failure and degradation? Vainly,
vainly, I tried to peer into the thick darkness of
the future. No definite idea of what success might
mean could find a place in my mind. I had some-
times indulged in daydreams, but these come not
to a mind occupied as mine on that day. And if
they had, and if fancy had been allowed its wildest

46 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

flight in portraying a future, it is safe to say that
the figure of an honorary academician of France,
seated in the chair of Newton and Franklin in the
palace of the Institute, would not have been found
in the picture.

As years passed away I have formed the habit
of looking back upon that former self as upon an-
other person, the remembrance of whose emotions
has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the
enjoyment of prosperity. If depressed by trial, I
think how light woxild this have appeared to that
boy had a sight of the future been opened up to
him. When, in the haUs of learning, I have gone
through the ceremonies which made me a citizen of
yet another commonwealth in the world of letters,
my thoughts have gone back to that day ; and I
have wished that the inexorable law of Nature could
then have been suspended, if only for one moment,
to show the scene that Providence held in reserve.

Next morning I was on my way betimes, having
stiU more than thirty miles before me. And the
miles seemed much longer than they did the day
before, for my feet were sore and my limbs stiflE.
Quite welcome, therefore, was a lift oflEered by a
young farmer, who, driving a cart, overtook me
early in the forenoon. He was very sociable, and
we soon got into an interesting conversation.

I knew that Dr. Foshay hailed from somewhere
in this region, where his father still hved, so I
asked my companion whether he knew a family of
that name. He knew them quite well.

DOCTOR FOSHAY 47

" Do you know anything of one of the sons who
is a doctor ? "

" Yes indeed ; I know all about him, but he ain't
no doctor. He tried to set up for one in Salisbury,
but the people there must a' found him out before
this, and I don't know where he is now."

" But I thought he studied medicine in Frederic-
ton or Maine or somewhere on the border."

" Oh, he went off to the States and pretended to
study, but he never did it. I tell you he ain't no
more a doctor nor I am. He ain't smart enough
to be a doctor."

I fell into a fit of musing long enough to hear,
in my mind's ear, with startling distinctness, the
words of two years before : " This world is all a
humbug, and the biggest humbug is the best man.
. . . You have a window in your breast and you
must close that window before you can succeed in
life." Now I grasped their full meaning.

Ten years later I went through the province by
rail on my wedding journey. At Dorchester, the
next village beyond Moncton, I was shown a place
where insolvent debtors were kept " on the limits."

" By stopping there," said my informant, " you
can see Dr. Foshay."

I suggested the question whether it was worth
while to break ova journey for the sake of seeing
him. The reply of my informant deterred me.

" It can hardly be worth while to do so. He wiU
be a painful object to see, — a bloated sot, drink-
ing himself to death as fast as he can."

48 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

The next I heard of him was that he had suc-
ceeded.

I reached St. John on the evening that a great
celebration of the commencement of work on the
first railway in the province was in progress. When
things are undecided, small matters turn the scale.
The choice of my day for starting out on my ad-
venturous journey was partly fixed by the desire to
reach St. John and see something of the celebra-
tion. Darkness came on when I was yet a mile
or two from the city ; then the first rocket I had
ever beheld rose before me in the sky. Two of
what seemed like unfortunate incidents at the time
were most fortunate. Subsequent and disappoint-
ing experience showed that had I succeeded in
getting the ride I wished in the stage, the resulting
depletion of my purse would have been almost fatal
to my reaching my journey's end. Arriving at the
city, I naturally found all the hotels filled. At
length a kindly landlady said that, although she
had no bed to give me, I was quite welcome to lie
on a soft carpeted floor, in the midst of people who
could not find any other sleeping place. No charge
was made for this accommodation. My hope of
finding something to do which woidd enable me to
earn a little money in St. John over and above the
cost of a bed and a daily loaf of bread was disap-
pointed. The efforts of the next week are so
painful to recall that I will not harrow the feelings
of the reader by describing them. Suffice it to say
that the adventure was wound up by an interview at

DOCTOR FOSHAY 49

Calais, a town on the Maine border, a few miles
from Eastport, with the captain of a small sailing
vessel, hardly more than a boat. He was bound
for Salem. I asked him the price of a passage.

" How much money have you?" he repUed.

I told him ; whether it was one or two dollars I
do not recall.

" I will take you for that if you will help us on
the voyage."

The offer was gladly accepted. The little craft
was about as near the opposite of a clipper ship as
one can imagine, never intended to run in any but
fair winds, and even with that her progress was
very slow. There was a constant succession of
west winds, and the result was that we were about
three weeks reaching Salem. Here I met my father,
who, after the death of my mother, had come to
seek his fortune in the " States." He had reached
the conclusion, on what grounds I do not know,
that the eastern part of Maryland was a most de-
sirable region, both in the character of its people
and in the advantages which it offered us. The
result was that, at the beginning of 1854, I found
myself teacher of a country school at a place called
Massey's Cross Eoads in Kent County. After
teaching here one year, I got a somewhat better
school at the pleasant little village of Sudlersville,
a few miles away.

Of my abilities as a manager and teacher of
youth the reader can judge. Suffice it to say
that, looking back at those two years, I am deeply

50 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

impressed with the good nature of the people in
tolerating me at aU.

My most pleasant recollection is that of two of
my best pupils of Sudlersville, nearly my own age.
One was Arthur E. Sudler, for whose special benefit
some chemical apparatus was obtained from Phila-
delphia. He afterwards studied medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania and delighted me by
writing that what I had taught him placed him
among the best in his class in chemistry. The
other was B. S. Elliott, who afterward became an
engineer or surveyor.

One of my most vivid recollections at Massey's
relates to a subject which by no means forms a
part of one's intellectual development, and yet is
at the bottom of aU human progress, that of diges-
tion. The staple food of the inhabitants of a
Southern farming region was much heartier than
any to which I had been accustomed. " Pork and
pone " were the staples, the latter being a rather
coarse cake with little or no seasoning, baked from
cornmeal. This was varied by a compound called
" shortcake," a mixture of flour and lard, rapidly
baked in a pan, and eaten hot. Though not dis-
tasteful, I thought it as villainous a compound as
a civilized man would put into his stomach.

Quite near my school lived a young bachelor
farmer who might be designated as William Bowler,
Esq., though he was better known as BiUy Bowler.
He had been educated partly at Delaware College,
Newark, and was therefore an interesting young

DOCTOR FOSHAT 51

man to know. In describing his experiences at
the college, he once informed me that they were
all very pleasant except in a single point ; that was
the miserably poor food that the students got to
eat. He could not, he declared, get along without
good eating. This naturally suggested that my
friend was something of a gourmand. Great, there-
fore, was my delight when, a few weeks later, he
expressed a desire to have me board with him. I
accepted the offer as soon as possible. Much to
my disappointment, shortcake was on the table at
the first meal and again at the second. It proved
to be the principal dish twice, and I am not sure
but three times a day. The other staple was fried
meat. On the whole this was worse than pork and
pone, which, if not toothsome, was at least whole-
some. As the days grew into weeks, I wondered
what Delaware College could give its students to
eat. To increase the perplexity, there were plenty
of chickens in the yard and vegetables in the gar-
den. I asked the cook if she could not boil some
vegetables and bring them on the table.

" Mas'er Bowler don't like wegetable."

Then I found that the chickens were being con-
sumed in the kitchen and asked for one.

" Mas'er Bowler don't like chicken," was the
reply, with an added intimation that the chickens
belonged to the denizens of the kitchen.

The mystery was now so dark and deep that I
determined to fathom it. I drew Mr. Bowler into
conversation once more about Delaware College,

52 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

and asked him what the students had to eat when
there.

He had evidently forgotten his former remark
and described what seemed to me a fairly well pro-
vided students' table. Now I came down on him
with my crusher.

" You told me once that the table was miserably
poor, so that you could hardly stand it. What fault
had you to find with it ? "

He reflected a moment, apparently recalling his
impression, then replied : " Oh, they had no short-
cake there ! "

In 1854 I availed myself of my summer vacation
to pay my first visit to the national capital, little
dreaming that it would ever be my home. I went
as far as the gate of the observatory, and looked
wistfully in, but feared to enter, as I did not know
what the rules might be regarding visitors. I
speculated upon the possible object of a queer red
sandstone building, which seemed so different from
anything else, and heard for the first time of the
Smithsonian Institution.

On the very beginning of my work at Massey's
the improvement in my position was so remarkable
that I felt my rash step of a few months before
fully justified. I wrote in triumph to my favorite
aunt, Rebecca Prince, that leaving Dr. Foshay was
the best thing I had ever done. I was no longer
" that boy," but a respectable young man with a
handle to my name.

Just what object I should pursue in life was still

DOCTOR FOSHAY 53

doubtful ; the avenues of the preferment I would
have Hked seemed to be closed through my not
being a college graduate. I had no one to advise
me as to the subjects I should pursue or the books
I should study. On such books as I could get, I
passed every spare hour. My father sent me Cob-
bett's English Grammar, •which I found amusing
and interesting, especially the criticisms upon the
grammar found here and there in royal addresses
to ParKament and other state papers. On the
•whole I am not sure but that the book justified my
father's good opinion, although I cannot but think
that it was rather hypercritical. I had been taught
the rudiments of French in Wallace when quite a
chUd by a Mr. Oldright, of whose methods and
pronunciation my memory gives me a most favor-
able impression. I now got Cobbett's French
Grammar, probably a much less commendable book
than his EngUsh one. I had never yet fathomed
the mysteries of analytic geometry or the calculus,
and so got Da-vies' books on those subjects. That
on the calculus was perhaps the worst that could
be put into the hands of a person situated as I
was. Two volumes of Bezout's Mathematics, in
French, about a century old, were, I think, rather
better. Say's Political Economy was the first book
I read on that subject, and it was quite a delight
to see hiunan affairs treated by scientific methods.
I finally reached the conclusion that mathematics
was the study I was best fitted to follow, though
I did not clearly see in what way I should turn

54 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the subject to account. I knew that Newton's
" Principia" was a celebrated book, so I got a copy
of the English translation. The path through it
was rather thorny, but I at least caught the spirit
here and there. No teacher at the present time
would think of using it as a text-book, yet as a
mental discipHne, and for the purpose of enabUng
one to form a mental image of the subject, its
methods at least are excellent. I got a copy of
the "American Journal of Science," hoping it
might enlighten me, but was frightened by its
big words, and found nothing that I could under-
stand.

During the year at Sudlersville I made several
efforts which, though they were insignificant so
far as immediate results were concerned, were in
some respects of importance for my future work.
With no knowledge of algebra except what was
derived from the meagre text-books I could pick
up, — not having heard even the name of Abel, or
knowing what view of the subject was taken by
professional mathematicians, — I made my first at-
tempt at a scientific article, " A New Demonstra-
tion of the Binomial Theorem." This I sent to
Professor Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian In-
stitution, to see if he deemed it suitable for publi-
cation. He promptly replied in the negative, but
offered to submit it to a professional mathemati-
cian for an opinion of its merits. I gladly accepted
this proposal, which was just what I wanted. In
due course a copy of the report was sent me. One

DOCTOR FOSHAY 55

part of the work was praised for its elegance, but
a lack of completeness and rigor was pointed out.
It was accompanied by a pleasant note from Pro-
fessor Henry remarking that, while not so favor-
able as I might have expected, it was sufficiently
so to encourage me in persevering.

The other effort to which I refer was of quite
a different character. A copy of the " National
Intelhgencer," intended for some subscriber who
had left Sudlersville, came to the post-office for
several months, and, there being no claimant, I
frequently had an opportunity to read it. One of
its features was frequent letters from volunteer
writers on scientific subjects. Among these was a
long letter from one G. W. Eveleth, the object of
which was to refute the accepted theory of the
universe, especially the view of Copernicus. For
aught I knew Mr. Eveleth held as high a position
as any one else in the world of science and letters,
so I read his article carefully. It was evidently
wholly fallacious, yet so plausible that I feared the
belief of the world in the doctrine of Copernicus
might suffer a severe shock, and hastened to the
rescue by writing a letter over my own name,
pointing out the fallacies. This was published
in the "National Intelligencer" — if my memory
serves me right — in 1855. My full name, printed
in large capitals, in a newspaper, at the bottom of
a letter, filled me with a sense of my temerity in
appearing so prominently in print, as if I were in-
truding into company where I might not be wanted.

56 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

My letter had two most unexpected and gratify-
ing results. One was a presentation of a copy of
Lee's " Tables and Formulae," which came to me
a few days later through the mail with the compli-
ments of Colonel Abert. Not long afterward came
a letter from Professor J. Lawrence Smith, after-
ward a member of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, transmitting a copy of a pamphlet by him
on the theory that meteorites were masses thrown
up from the volcanoes of the moon, and asking my
opinion on the subject.

I had not yet gotten into the world of light.
But I felt as one who, standing outside, could
knock against the wall and hear an answering
knock from within.

The beginning of 1856 found me teaching in
the family of a planter named Bryan, residing in
Prince George County, Md., some fifteen or twenty
miles from Washington. This opened up new op-
portunities. I could ride into Washington when-
ever I wished, leave my horse at a livery stable,
and see whatever sights the city offered. The
Smithsonian Library was one of the greatest attrac-
tions. Sometime in May, 1856, I got permission
from the attendant in charge to climb into the
gallery and see the mathematical books. Here I
was delighted to find the greatest treasure that my
imagination had ever pictured, — a work that I
had thought of almost as belonging to fairyland.
And here it was right before my eyes' — four
enormous volumes, — " Mecanique Celeste, by the

DOCTOR FOSHAY 57

Marquis de Laplace, Peer of France ; translated
by Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D., Member of the
Royal Societies of London, Edinburg, and Dublin."
I inquired as to the possibility of my borrowing the
first volume, and was told that this could be done
only by special authority of Professor Henry. I
soon got the necessary authority through Mr.
Rhees, the chief clerk, whose kindness in the
matter deeply impressed me, signed a promise to
return it within one month, and carried it in
triumph to my little schoolhouse. I dipped into
it here and there, but at every step was met by
formulae and methods quite beyond the power of
one who knew so little of mathematics. In due
time I brought the book back as promised.

Up to this time I think I had never looked
upon a real hve professor ; certainly not upon one
of eminence in the scientific world. I wondered
whether there was any possibility of my making
the acquaintance of so great a man as Professor
Henry. Some time previous a Kttle incident had
occurred which caused me some uneasiness on the
subject. I had started out very early on a visit to
Washington, or possibly I had stayed there all
night. At any rate, I reached the Smithsonian
Building quite early, opened the main door,
stepped cautiously into the vestibule, and looked
around. Here I was met by a short, stout, and
exceedingly grufE sort of a man, who looked upon
my entrance with evident displeasure. He said
scarcely a word, but motioned me out of the door,

58 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMEK

and showed me a paper or something in the entrance
which intimated that the Institution would be open
at nine o'clock. It was some three minutes before
that hour, so I was an intruder. The man looked
so respectable and so commanding in his appear-
ance that I wondered if he could be Professor
Henry, yet sincerely hoped he was not. I after-
ward found that he was only " Old Peake," the jan-
itor.^ When I found the real Professor Henry he
received me with characteristic urbanity, told me
something of his own studies, and suggested that
I might find something to do in the Coast Survey,
but took no further steps at that time.

The question whether I was fitted for any such
employment now became of great interest. The
principal question was whether one must know
celestial mechanics in order to secure such a posi-
tion, so, after leaving Professor Henry, I made my
way to the Coast Survey office, and was shown to
the chief clerk, as the authority for the informa-
tion. I modestly asked him whether a knowledge
of physical astronomy was necessary to a position
in that office. Instead of frankly telling me that
he did not know what physical astronomy was, he
answered in the affirmative. So I left with the
impression that I must master the " M^canique
Celeste " or some similar treatise before finding any
opening there.

1 Feake, notwithstanding his official title, would seem to have
been more than an ordinary janitor, as he was the author of a
Guide to the Smithsonian Institution.

DOCTOR FOSHAY 59

I could not, of course, be satisfied with a single
visit to such a man, and so called several times
during the year. One thing I wondered about
was whether he would remember me when he again
saw me. On one occasion I presented him with a
plan for improving the Cavendish method of deter-
mining the density of the earth, which he took
very kindly. I subsequently learned that he was
much interested in this problem. On another occa-
sion he gave me a letter to Mr. J. E. Hilgard,
assistant in charge of the Coast Survey office. My
reception by the latter was as delightful as that by
Professor Henry. I found from my first interview
with him that the denizens of the world of light
were up to the most sanguine conceptions I ever
could have formed.

At this time, or probably some time before, I
bought a copy of the " American Ephemeris " for
1858, and amused myself by computing on a slate
the occultations visible at San Francisco during the
first few months of the year. At this time I had
learned nothing definite from Mr. Hilgard as to
employment in his office. But about December,
1856, I received a note from him stating that he
had been talking about me to Professor Winlock,
superintendent of the "Nautical Almanac," and
that I might possibly get employment on that
work. When I saw him again I told him that I
had not yet acquired such a knowledge of physical
astronomy as would be necessary for the calcula-
tions in question ; but he assured me that this was

60 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

no drawback, as formulae for all the computations
would be supplied me. I was far from satisfied
at the prospect of doing nothing more than mak-
ing routine calculations with formulae prepared by
others ; indeed, it was almost a disappointment to
find that I was considered qualified for such a place.
I could only console myself by the reflection that
the ease of the work would not hinder me from
working my way up. Shortly afterward I under-
stood that it was at least worth while to present
myself at Cambridge, and so started out on a jour-
ney thither about the last day of the year 1856.

At that time even a railroad journey was quite
difEerent from what it is now. The cars were drawn
through Baltimore by horses. At Havre de Grace
the train had to stop and the passengers were taken
across the river in a ferryboat to another train.
At Philadelphia the city had to be traversed by
transfer coaches. Looking around for this convey-
ance, I met a man who said he had it. He shoved
me into it and drove off. I remarked with suspi-
cion that no other coaches were accompanying us.
After a pretty long drive the speed of the horses
gradually began to slacken. At length it came to
a complete stop in front of a large building, and I
got out. But it was only a freight station, locked
up and dark throughout. The driver mumbled
something about his fare, then rolled back on his
seat, seemingly dead drunk. The nearest sign of
life was at a tavern a block or two away. There
I found that I was only a short distance from the

DOCTOR FOSHAY 61

station of departure, and reached my train barely
in time.

Landing in New York at the first glimmer of
dawn, near the end of the line of passengers I
was momentarily alarmed to see a man pick up
what seemed to be a leather purse from right be-
tween my feet. It was brown and, so far as I
could see, just like my own. I immediately felt
the breast pocket of my coat and found that my
own was quite safe. The man who picked up the
purse inquired in the politest tone possible H it was
mine, to which I replied in the negative. He re-
treated a short distance and then a bystander came
up and chided me in a whisper for my folly in not
claiming the purse. The only reply he got was,
" Oh, I 'm up to all your tricks." On a repetition
of this assurance the pair sneaked away.

Arriving at Cambridge, I sought out Professor
Winlock and was informed that no immediate em-
ployment was open at his office. It would be neces-
sary for him to get authority from Washington.
After this was obtained some hope might be held
out, so I appeared in the office from time to time
as a visitor, my first visit being that described in
the opening chapter.

m

THE WORLD OP SWEETNESS AND LIGHT

The term " Nautical Almanac " is an unfortunate
misnomer for what is, properly speaking, the " As-
tronomical Ephemeris." It is quite a large vol-
ume, from which the world draws all its knowledge
of times and seasons, the motions of the heavenly
bodies, the past and future positions of the stars
and planets, eclipses, and celestial phenomena gen-
erally which admit of prediction. It is the basis
on which the family almanac is to rest. It also
contains the special data needed to enable the as-
tronomer and navigator to determine their position
on land or sea. The first British publication of
the sort, prepared by Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal,
a century ago, was intended especially for the use
of navigators ; hence the familiar appellation, which
I call unfortunate because it leads to the impression
that the work is simply an enlargement and im-
provement of the household almanac.

The leading nations publish ephemerides of this
sort. The introductions and explanations are, of
course, in the languages of the respective countries ;
but the contents of the volume are now so much
alike that the duplication of work involved in pre-

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 63

paring them seems quite unnecessary. Yet national
pride and emulation will probably continue it for
some time to come.

The first appropriation for an American ephem-
eris and nautical almanac was made by Congress in
1849. Lieutenant Charles Henry Davis, as a leader
and moving spirit in securing the appropriation,
was naturally made the first superintendent of the
work. At that time astronomical science in our
country was so far from being reduced to a system
that it seemed necessary to have the work prepared
at some seat of learning. So, instead of founding
the office in Washington, it was established at
Cambridge, the seat of Harvard University, where
it could have the benefit of the technical knowledge
of experts, and especially of Professor Benjamin
Peirce, who was recognized as the leading mathe-
matician of America, Here it remained until 1866,
when conditions had so far changed that the office
was removed to Washington, where it has since
remained.

To this work I was especially attracted because
its preparation seemed to me to embody the high-
est intellectual power to which man had ever
attained. The matter used to present itself to my
mind somewhat in this way : Supply any man with
the fundamental data of astronomy, the times at
which stars and planets cross the meridian of a
place, and other matters of this kind. He is in-
formed that each of these bodies whose observations
he is to use is attracted by all the others with a

64 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

force which varies as the inverse square of their
distance apart. From these data he is to weigh
the bodies, predict their motion in all future time,
compute their orbits, determine what changes of
form and position these orbits will undergo through
thousands of ages, and make maps showing ex-
actly over what cities and towns on the surface of
the earth an ecUpse of the sun will pass fifty
years hence, or over what regions it did pass
thousands of years ago. A more hopeless problem
than this could not be presented to the ordinary
human intellect. There are tens of thousands of
men who could be successful in all the ordinary
walks of life, hundreds who could wield empires,
thousands who could gain wealth, for one who
could take up this astronomical problem with any
hope of success. The men who have done it are
therefore in intellect the select few of the human
race, — an aristocracy ranking above aU others in
the scale of being. The astronomical ephemeris is
the last practical outcome of their productive genius.
On the question whether the world generally
reasoned in this way, I do not remember having
any distinct idea. This was certainly not because
I was indifferent to the question, but because it
never strongly presented itself to my mind. Prom
my point of view it would not have been an impor-
tant one, because I had already formed the convic-
tion that one should choose that sphere in life to
which he was most strongly attracted, or for which
his faculties best fitted him.

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 65

A few months previous to my advent Commander
Davis had been detached from the superintendency
and ordered to command the sloop St. Mary's. He
was succeeded by Professor Joseph Winlock, who
afterward succeeded George P. Bond as director of
the Harvard Observatory. Most companionable in
the society of his friends, Winlock was as silent
as General Grant with the ordinary run of men.
Withal, he had a way of putting his words into
exact official form. The following anecdote of
him used to be current. While he was attached to
the Naval Academy, he was introduced one even-
ing at a reception to a visiting lady. He looked
at the lady for a decorous length of time, and she
looked at him ; then they parted without saying
a word. His introducer watched the scene, and
asked him, " Why did you not talk to that lady ? "

" I had no statement to make to her," was the
reply.

Dr. Gould told me this story was founded on
fact, but when, after Winlock's death, it was put
off on me with some alterations, I felt less sure.

The following I believe to be authentic. It oc-
curred several years later. Hilgard, in charge of
the Coast Survey office, was struck by the official
terseness of the communications he occasionally
received from Winlock, and resolved to be his rival.
They were expecting additions to their families
about the same time, and had doubtless spoken of
the subject. When Hilgard's arrived, he addressed
a communication to Winlock in these terms : —

66 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

" Mine 's a boy. What 's yours ? "
In due course of time the following letter was
received in reply : —

Deae Hilgaed: —

Boy.

Yours, etc., J. Winlock.

When some time afterward I spoke to Winlock
on the subject, and told him what Hilgard's motive
was, he replied, " It was not fair in Hilgard to try
and take me unawares in that way. Had I known
what he was driving at, I might have made my
letter still shorter." I did not ask him how he
would have done it. It is of interest that the
" boy " afterward became one of the assistant sec-
retaries of the Smithsonian Institution.

One of the most remarkable features of the his-
tory of the "Nautical Almanac" is the number of
its early assistants who have gained prominence or
distinction in the various walks of life. It would
be difficult to find so modest a public work to ex-
ceed it in this respect.

John D. Eunkle, who lived till 1902, was, as I
have said, the senior and leading assistant in the
office. He afterward became a professor in the In-
stitute of Technology, and succeeded Rogers as its
president. In 1876 he started the school of man-
ual training, which has since been one of the great
features of the Institute. He afterward resigned
the presidency, but remained its principal professor
of mathematics. He was the editor and founder

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 67

of the " Mathematical Monthly," of which I shall
presently have more to say.

The most wonderful genius in the office, and the
one who would have been the most interesting sub-
ject of study to a psychologist, was Truman Henry
Safford. In early childhood he had excited atten-
tion by his precocity as what is now sometimes
called a " Hghtning calculator." A committee of
the American Academy of Arts and Science was
appointed to examine him. It very justly and
wisely reported that his arithmetical powers were
not in themselves equal to those of some others on
record, especially Zerah Colburn, but that they
seemed to be the outcome of a remarkable develop-
ment of the reasoning power. When nine years
old, he computed almanacs, and some of his work
at this age is still preserved in the Harvard Univer-
sity Library. He graduated at Harvard in 1854, and
was soon afterward taken into the Nautical Alma-
nac Office, while he also worked from time to time
at the Cambridge observatory. It was found, how-
ever, that the power of continuous work was no
greater in him than in others, nor did he succeed
in doing more than others in the course of a year.

The mental process by which certain gifted
arithmetical computers reach almost in an instant
the results of the most compHcated calculations is
a psychological problem of great interest, which
has never been investigated. No more promising
subject for the investigation could ever have been
found than Safford, and I greatly regret having

68 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

lost all opportunities to solve the problem. What
was of interest in Safford's case was the connection
of this faculty with other remarkable mental powers
of an analogous but yet different kind. He had
a remarkable faculty for acquiring, using, and read-
ing languages, and would have been an accom-
plished linguist had he turned his attention in that
direction. He was a walking bibliography of as-
tronomy, which one had only to consult in order
to learn in a moment what great astronomers of
recent times had written on almost any subject,
where their work was published, and on what shelf
of the Harvard Library the book could be found.
But the faculty most closely connected with cal-
culation was a quickness and apprehension of
vision, of which the following is an example : —

About 1876 he visited the Naval Observatory in
Washington for the first time in his hfe. We
wanted a certain catalogue of stars and went
together into the library. The required catalogue
was on one of a tier of shelves containing al-
together a hundred, or perhaps several hundred
volumes. " I do not know whether we have the
book," said I, " but if we have, it is on one of
these shelves." I began to go through the slow
process of glancing at the books one by one until
my eyes should strike the right title. He stood
back six or eight feet and took in all the shelves
seemingly at one glance, then stepped forward and
said, " Here it is." I might have supposed this
an accident, but that he subsequently did practi-

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 69

cally the same thing in my of&ce, selecting in a
moment a book we wanted to see, after throwing
a rapid glance over shelves containing perhaps a
hundred volumes.

An example of his apprehension and memory
for numbers was narrated by Mr. Alvan Clark.
When the latter had completed one of his great
telescopes for the University of Chicago, Safford
had been named as director, and accompanied the
three members of the firm to the city when they
carried the object glass thither. On leaving the
train all four took their seats in a hotel omnibus,
Safford near the door. Then they found that they
had forgotten to give their baggage checks to the
expressman ; so the other three men passed their
checks to Safford, who added his own and handed
all four to the conductor of the omnibus.

When it was time for the baggage to come to
the hotel, there was such a crowd of new arrivals
that the attendants could not find it. The hotel
clerk remarked on inquiry, " If I only knew the
numbers of your checks, I would have no difficulty
in tracing your trunks." Safford at once told off
the four numbers, which he had read as he was
passing the checks to the conductor.

The great fire practically put an end to the
activity of the Chicago Observatory and forced its
director to pursue his work in other fields. That
he failed to attain that commanding position due
to his genius is to be ascribed to a cause preva-
lent among us during all the middle part of the

70 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

century ; perhaps that from which most brilliant
intellects fail to reach eminence : lack of the power
of continuous work necessary to bring important
researches to a completion.

Another great intellect of the office was Chaun-
cey Wright. If Wright had systematically applied
his powers, he might have preceded or supplanted
Herbert Spencer as the great exponent of the
theory of evolution. He had graduated at Har-
vard in 1853, and was a profound student of
philosophy from that time forward, though I am
not aware that he was a writer. When in 1858
Sir WiUiam Hamilton's "Lectures on Metaphy-
sics " appeared, he took to them with avidity. In
1859 appeared Darwin's " Origin of Species," and
a series of meetings was held by the American
Academy, the special order of which was the dis-
cussion of this book. Wright and myself, not yet
members, were invited to be present. To judge of
the interest it is only necessary to remark that
Agassiz and Gray were the two leading disputants,
the first taking ground against Darwin, the other
in his favor. Wright was a Darwinist from the
very beginning, explaining the theory in private
conversation from a master's point of view, and soon
writing upon it in the " North American Review "
and in other publications. Of one of his articles
Darwin has been quoted as saying that it was
the best exposition of his theory that had then
appeared. After his untimely death in 1875,
Wright's papers were collected and published under

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 71

the title of " Philosophical Discussions." ^ Their
style is clear-cut and faultless in logical form, yet
requiring such close attention to every word as to
be less attractive to the general reader of to-day
than that of Spencer. In a more leisurely age,
when men wanted to think profoundly as they
went along in a book, and had Uttle to disturb
the current of their thoughts, it would have com-
manded wide attention among thinking men.

A singular pecuUarity which I have sometimes
noticed among men of intelligence is that those
who are best informed on the subject may be most
reckless as regards the laws of health. Wright
did all of his office work in two or three months
of the year. During those months he worked at
his computations far into the hours of the morn-'
ing, stimulating his strength with cigars, and drop-
ping his work only to take it up when he had had
the necessary sleep. A strong constitution might
stand this for a few years, as his did. But the
ultimate result hardly needs to be told.

Besides the volume I have mentioned, Wright's
letters were collected and printed after his death
by the subscription of his friends. In these his
philosophic views are from time to time brought
out in a light, easy way, much more charming than
the style of his elaborate discussions. It was in
one of his letters that I first found the apothegm,
" Men are born either Platonists or Aristotelians,"
a happy drawing of the line which separates the
> Henry Holt & Co. : New York, 1877.

72 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

hard-headed scientific thinker of to-day from the
thinkers of all other classes.

William Ferrell, a much older man than myself,
entered the office ahout the same time as I did.
He published papers on the motions of fluids on
the earth's surface in the " Mathematical Monthly,"
and became one of the great authorities on dynamic
meteorology, including the mathematical theory of
winds and tides. He was, I beheve, the first to
publish a correct theory of the retardation pro-
duced in the rotation of the earth by the action of
the tides, and the consequent slow lengthening of
the day.

" James Edward Oliver .might have been one of
the great mathematicians of his time had he not
been absolutely wanting in the power of continu-
ous work. It was scarcely possible to get even
his year's office work out of him. Yet when I
once wrote him a question on certain mathematical
forms which arise in the theory of " least squares,"
he replied in a letter which, with some develop-
ments and change of form, would have made a
worthy memoir in any mathematical journal. As
a matter of fact, the same thoughts did appear
some years after, in an elaborate paper by Profes-
sor J. W. L. Grlaisher, of England, published by
the Eoyal Astronomical Society.

OHver, who afterward became professor of higher
mathematics at Cornell University, was noted for
what I think should be considered _tiie valuable
quality of absent-mindedness. It was said of him

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 73

that -he was once ■walking on the seashore with a
small but valuable gold watch loose in his pocket.
While deep in thought he started a kind of distrac-
tion by picking up flat stones and skipping them
on the water. Taking his watch from his pocket
he skipped it as a stone. When I became well ac-
quainted with him I took the liberty of asking him
as to the correctness of this story. He could not
positively say whether it was true or not. The
facts were simply that he had the watch, that he
had walked on the seashore, had skipped stones,
missed the watch at some subsequent time, and
never saw it again.

More definite was an observation made on his
movements one afternoon by a looker-out from a
window of the Nautical Almanac Office. Across
the way the road was bounded by no fence, simply
passing along the side of an open field. As Oliver,
got near the office, his chin on his breast, deep in
thought, he was seen gradually to deviate from the
sidewalk, and direct his steps along the field. He
continued on this erratic course until he ran almost
against the fence at the other end. This awoke
him from his reverie, and he started up, looked
around, and made his way back to the road.

I have spoken only of the men who were employed
at the office at the time I entered. Previous to
my time were several who left to accept profes-
sorships in various parts of the country. Among
them were Professors Van Vleck, of Middletown,
and Hedrick and Kerr, of North Carolina. Not

74 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

desiring to leave upon the mind of the reader the
impression that all of whom I have not spoken re-
mained in ohscurity, I will remark that Mr. Isaac
Bradford rose to the position of mayor of the city
of Cambridge, and that fugitive pieces in prose
and poetry by Mr. E. J. Loomis were collected in a
volume.*

The discipline of the pubhc service was less rigid
in the office at that time than at any government
institution I ever heard of. In theory there was an
understanding that each assistant was " expected "
to be in the office five hours a day. The hours
might be selected by himself, and they generally
extended from nine until two, the latter being at
that time the college and family dinner hour. As
a matter of fact, however, the work was done pretty
much where and when the assistant chose, all that
was really necessary being to have it done on time.

It will be seen that the excellent opportunities
offered by this system were well improved by those
who enjoyed them — improved in a way that I
fear would not be possible in any other surround-
ings. I took advantage of them by enrolling my-
self as a student of mathematics in the Lawrence
Scientific School. On this occasion I well remem-
ber my pleasant reception by Charles "W- Ehot,
tutor in mathematics, and E. N. Horsf ord, professor
of chemistry, and, I beUeve, dean of the school-
As a newcomer into the world of light, it was
pleasant to feel the spirit with which they welcomed

1 Wayside Sketches, by E. J. Loomis. Roberts : Boston.

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 75

me. The departments of chemistry and engineer-
ing were about the only ones which, at that time,
had any distinct organization. As a student of
mathematics it could hardly be said that anything
was required of me either in the way of attendance
on lectures or examinations until I came up for the
degree of Bachelor of Science. I was supposed,
however, to pursue my studies under the direction
of Professor Peirce.

So sKght a connection with the university does
not warrant me in assuming an authoritative posi-
tion as an observer of its men or its workings.
Yet there are many features associated with it which
I have not seen in print, which have probably dis-
appeared with the progress of the age, and to
which, therefore, allusion may be made. One, as
it presents itself to my memory, is the great variety
and picturesqueness of character which the univer-
sity then presented. I would like to know whether
the changes in men which one fancies he sees dur-
ing his passage from youth to age are real, or only
relative to his point of view. If my impressions
are correct, our educational planing mill cuts down
all the knots of genius, and reduces the best of the
men who go through it to much the same standard.
Does not the Harvard professor of to-day always
dine in a dress coat ? Is he not free from every
eccentricity? Do the students ever call him
" Benny " or " Tobie " ? Is any " Old Soph " ^ now

^ Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles, a native Greek and a learned
professor of the literature of his country.

76 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

ambulant on the college green? Is not the ad-
ministration of the library a combination of Hberal-
ity and correctness ? Is such a Ubrarian as John
Langdon Sibley possible ?

Mr. Sibley, under a rough exterior, was one of
the best-hearted and most admirable of men, with
whom I ultimately formed an intimate friendship.
But our first acquaintance was of a very unfavor-
able kind. It came about in this way : not many
days after being taken into the Nautical Ahnanac
Ofi&ce I wanted a book from the university Ubrary,
and asked a not over-bright old gentleman in the
office what formalities were necessary in order to
borrow it.

" Just go over and tell them you want it for the
Nautical Almanac."

" But they don't know me at the library, and
surely will not give a book to any stray caller
because he says he wants it for the Nautical
Almanac."

" You have only to say ' Nautical Almanac ' and
you will get the book."

I argued the matter as stoutly as courtesy ad-
mitted, but at length, concluding that I was new to
the rules and regulations of the place, accepted the
supposedly superior knowledge of my informer and
went over to the hbrary with a due measm-e of
assurance. The first attendant whom I addressed
referred me to the assistant hbrarian, and he again
to the librarian. After these formaHties, conducted
with impressive gravity, my assurance wilted when

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 77

I was ushered into the august presence of the
chief Hbrarian.

As the mental picture of the ensuing scene has
shaped itself through more than forty years it shows
a personage of imposing presence, gigantic features,
and forbidding countenance, standing on a dais
behind a desk, expounding the law governing the
borrowing of books from the hbrary of Harvard
College to an abashed youth standing before him,
I left without the book, but with a valuable addition
to my knowledge of hbrary management. We both
remembered this interview, and exchanged impres-
sions about it long years after.

" I thought you the most crusty and disobliging
old man I had ever seen."

" And I thought you the most presumptuous
youth that had ever appeared in the library."

One of Mr. Sibley's professional doctrines was
that at least one copy of everything printed was
worth preserving. I strove to refute him, but long
failed. Half in derision, I offered the library the
stub of my wash-book. Instead of throwing it
into the wastebasket he kept it, with the remark
that the wash-book of a nineteenth century student
would at some future time be of interest to the an-
tiquarian. In due time I received a finely engraved
acknowledgment of the gift. But I forced him
from his position at last. He had to admit that
copies of the theatre posters need not all be pre-
served. It would suffice to keep a few specimens.

Prof essor Peirce was much more than a mathema-

78 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

tician. Like many men of the time, he was a warm
lover and a cordial hater. It could not always be
guessed which side of a disputed question he would
take ; but one might be fairly sure that he would
be at one extreme or the other. As a speaker and
lecturer he was very pleasing, neither impressive
nor eloquent, and yet interesting from his earnest-
ness and vivacity. For this reason it is said that
he was once chosen to enforce the views of the
university professors at a town meetiog, where
some subject of interest to them was coming up
for discussion. Several of the professors attended
the meeting, and Peirce made his speech. Then a
townsman rose and took the opposite side, express-
ing the hope that the meeting would not allow it-
self to be dictated to by these nabobs of Harvard
College. When he sat down, Peirce remained in
placid silence, making no reply. When the meet-
ing broke up, some one asked Peirce why he had
not replied to the man.

" Why ! did you not hear what he called us ? He
said we were nabobs ! I so enjoyed sitting up
there and seeing all that crowd look up to me as
a nabob that I could not say one word against the
fellow."

The first of the leading astronomers whose ac-
quaintance I made was Dr. Benjamin Apthorp
Gould. Knowing his eminence, I was quite sur-
prised by his youthful vivacity. His history, had
I time to recount it, might be made to serve well
the purpose of a grave lesson upon the conditions

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 79

required, even by the educated public, of a scien-
tific investigator, capable of doing the highest and
best work in his branch. The soul of generosity
and the pink of honor, ever ready to lend a hand
to a struggling youth whom he found deserving of
help, enthusiastically devoted to his favorite science,
pursuing it in the most exalted spirit, animated by
not a single mean motive, it might have been sup-
posed that all the facilities the world could offer
would have been open to him in his career. If
such was not the case to the extent one might have
wished, I do not mean to intimate that his life can
be regarded as a failure. In whatever respect the
results may have fallen off from his high ideal, it
is more to be regretted on the score of science than
on his own.

Scorning pretense and charlatanry of all kinds,
believing that only the best were to be encouraged,
he was far from being a man of the people. Only
a select few enjoyed his favor, but these few well
deserved it. That no others would have deserved
it I should be far from intimating. The undis-
guised way in which he expressed his sentiments
for any one, no matter how influential, who did
not come up to the high standard he set, was not
adapted to secure the favor even of the most edu-
cated community. Of worldly wisdom in this mat-
ter he seemed, at least in his early days, to know
nothing.

He graduated at Harvard in 1845, in one of
the very distinguished classes. Being fond of as-

80 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

tronomy, he was struck with the backward condi-
tion of that science in our country. He resolved
to devote his Ufe to bmlding up the science in
America. He went to Germany, then the only
country in which astronomy was pursued in its
most advanced form, studied under Gauss and
Argelander, and took his degree at Gottingen in
1848. Soon after his return he founded the " As-
tronomical Journal," and also took a position as
Chief of the Longitude Department in the Coast
Survey.

The great misfortune of his life, and temporarily
at least, a severe blow to American astronomy,
were associated with his directorship of the Dud-
ley Observatory at Albany. This institution was
foimded by the munificence of a wealthy widow of
Albany. The men to whom she intrusted the
administration of her gift were among the most
prominent and highly respected citizens of the
place. The trustees went wisely to work. They
began by forming an advisory scientific council,
consisting of Bache, Henry, and Peirce. Under
the direction of this council the observatory was
built and equipped with instruments. When ready
for active work in 1857, Gould moved thither and
took personal charge. Very soon rumors of dissen-
sion were heard. The afEair gradually grew into a
contest between the director and the trustees, ex-
ceeding in bitterness any I have ever known in the
world of learning or even of politics. It doubtless
had its origin in very small beginnings. The pohcy

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 81

of the director recognized no end but scientific effi-
ciency. The trustees, as the responsible adminis-
trators of the trust, felt that they had certain rights
in the matter, especially that of introducing visitors
to inspect the institution and look through the
telescope. How fatal the granting of such cour-
tesies is to continuous work with an instrument
only astronomers know ; and one of the most em-
barrassing difficulties the director of such an institu-
tion meets with is to effect a prudent compromise
between the scientific efficiency of his institution
and the wishes of the public. But Gould knew no
such word as compromise. It was humiliating to
one in the position of a trustee to send some visitor
with a permit to see the observatory, and have the
visitor return with the report that he had not been
received with the most distinguished courtesy, and,
perhaps, had not seen the director at all, but had
only been informed by an assistant of the rules of
the place and the impossibility of securing admis-
sion.

This spark was enough to kindle a fire. When
the fire gathered strength, the director, instead of
yielding, called on the scientific council for aid. It
is quite Hkely that, had these wise and prudent men
been consulted at each step, and their advice been
followed, he would have emphasized his protest
by resigning. But before they were called in,
the affair had gone so far that, believing the di-
rector to be technically right in the ground he
had taken and the work he had done, the coimcil

82 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

felt bound to defend him. The result was a war
in which the shots were pamphlets containing
charges, defenses, and rejoinders. The animosity
excited may be shown by the fact that the attacks
were not confined to Gould and his administration,
but extended to every institution with which he and
the president of the council were supposed to be
connected. Bache's administration of the Coast
Survey was held up to scorn and ridicule. It was
supposed that Gould, as a Cambridge astronomer,
was, as a matter of course, connected with the
Nautical Ahnanac Office, and paid a high salary.
This being assumed, the office was included in the
scope of attack, and with such success that the
item for its support for the year 1859, on motion
of Mr. Dawes, was stricken out of the naval bill.
How far the fire spread may be judged by the
fact that a whole edition of the "Astronomical
Journal," supposed to have some mention of the
afEair in the same cover, was duly sent ofB from
the observatory, but never reached its destination
through the mails. Gould knew nothing of this
fact until, some weeks later, I expressed my sur-
prise to him at not receiving No. 121. How or
by whom it was intercepted, I do not know that he
ever serioxisly attempted to inquire. The outcome
of the matter was that the trustees asserted their
right by taking forcible possession of the obser-
vatory.

During my first year at Cambridge I made the
acquaintance of a senior in the college whose un-

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 83

timely death seven years later I have never ceased
to deplore. This was William P. G. Bartlett, son
of a highly esteemed Boston physician, Dr. George
Bartlett. The latter was a brother of Sidney Bart-
lett, long the leader of the Boston bar. Bartlett
was my junior in years, but his nature and the sur-
rounding circumstances were such that he exercised
a powerful influence upon me. His virile and ag^
gressive honesty could not be exceeded. His mathe-
matical abilities were of a high order, and he had no
ambition except to become a mathematician. Had
he entered public life at Washington, and any one
had told me that he was guilty of a dishonest act,
I should have replied, " You might as well tell me
that he picked up the Capitol last night and car-
ried it off on his back." The fact that one could
say so much of any man, I have always looked upon
as illustrating one of the greatest advantages of
having a youth go through college. The really
important results I should look for are not culture
or training alone, but include the acquaintance of
a body of men, many of whom are to take leading
positions in the world, of a completeness and inti-
macy that can never be acquired under other cir-
cumstances. The student sees his fellow students
through and through as he can never see through
a man in future years.

It was, and I suppose stiU is, the custom for the
members of a graduating class at Harvard to add
to their class biographies a motto expressing their
aspirations or views of life. Bartlett's was, " I love

84 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

mathematics and hate humbug." What the latter
clause would have led to in his case, had he gone
out into the world, one can hardly guess.

" I have had a long talk with my Uncle Sidney,"
he said to me one day. " He wants me to study
law, maintaining that the wealth one can thereby ac-
quire, and the prominence he may assume, will give
him a higher position in society and public esteem
than mere learning ever can. But I told him that
if I could stand high in the esteem of twenty such
men as Cayley, Sylvester, and Peirce, I cared no-
thing to be prominent in the eyes of the rest of
the world." Such an expression from an eminent
member of the Boston bar, himself a Harvard
graduate, was the first striking evidence I met with
that my views of the exalted nature of astronomical
investigation were not shared by society at large.
One of the greatest advantages I enjoyed through
Bartlett was an intimate acquaintance with a cul-
tured and refined Boston family.

In 1858 Mr. Runkle founded the " Mathemati-
cal Monthly," having secured, in advance, the co-
operation of the leading professors of the subject
in the country. The journal was continued, under
many difficulties, for three years. As a vehicle for
publishing researches in advanced mathematics, it
could not be of a high order, owing to the neces-
sity of a subscription hst. Its design was therefore
to interest students and professors in the subject,
and thus prepare the way for the future growth
of mathematical study among us. Its principal

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 85

feature was the offer of prize problems to students
as well as prizes for essays on mathematical sub-
jects. The first to win a prize for an essay was
George W- HiU, a graduate of Rutgers just out of
college, who presented a memoir in which the hand
of the future master was evident throughout.

In the general conduct of the journal Bartlett
and myself, though not ostensibly associate editors,
were at least assistants. Simple though the affair
was, some of our experiences were of an interest-
ing and, perhaps, instructive nature.

Soon after the first number appeared, a con-
tribution was offered by a professor in a distant
State. An important part of the article was found
to be copied bodily from Walton's " Problems in
Mechanics," an EngUsh book which, it might be
supposed, was not much known in this country.
Kunkle did not want to run the risk of injuring
his subscription list by offending one occupying an
influential position if he could help it with honor
to the journal. Of course it was not a question
of publishing the paper, but only of letting the
author know why he did not do so, — " letting him
down easy."

Bartlett's advice was characteristic. " Just write
to the fellow that we don't publish stolen articles.
That 's all you need say."

I suggested that we might inflict on him aU
necessary humiliation by letting him know in the
gentlest manner possible that we saw the fraud.
Of course Runkle preferred this coittse, and wrote

86 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

him, calling his attention to a similarity between
his treatment of the subject and that of Walton,
which materially detracted from the novelty of
the former. I think it was suggested that he get
the book, if possible, and assure himself on the
subject.

A vigorous answer came by return of mail. He
was a possessor of Walton's book, knew all about
the similar treatment of the subject by Walton, and
did not see that that should be any bar to the
publication of the article. I think it was he who
wound up his letter with the statement that, while
he admitted the right of the editor to publish what
he pleased, he, the writer, was too busy to spend
his time in writing rejected articles.

An eminent would-be contributor was a promi-
nent Pennsylvania poHtician, who had read a long
and elaborate article, before some teachers' asso-
ciation, on an arithmetical problem about oxen eat-
ing grass, the power to solve which was taken as
the highest mark of mathematical ability, among
school teachers during the first half of the century.
The association referred the paper to the editor of
the " Mathematical Monthly," by whom it was, I
believe, consigned to the wastebasket. The result
was a good deal of correspondence, such a pro-
ceeding being rather humiliating to a man of emi-
nence who had addressed so distinguished an assem-
bly. The outcome of the matter was that the
paper, which was much more in the nature of a
legal document than of a mathematical investiga-

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 87

tion, was greatly reduced in length by its author,
and then still further shorn by the editor, until it
would fill only two or three pages of the journal ;
thus reduced, it was published.

The time was not yet ripe for the growth of
mathematical science among us, and any develop-
ment that might have taken place in that direction
was rudely stopped by the civil war. Perhaps
this may account for the curious fact that, so far
as I have ever remarked, none of the student con-
tributors to the journal. Hill excepted, has made
himself known as a mathematical investigator.
Not only the state of mathematical learning, but
the conditions of success at that time in a mathe-
matical text-book, are strikingly illustrated by one
of our experiences.

One of the leading pubUshing houses of edu-
cational text-books in the country issued a very
complete and advanced series, from the pen of
a former teacher of the subject. They were be-
ing extensively introduced, and were sent to the
" Mathematical Monthly " for review. They were
distinguished by quite apt illustrations, well fitted,
perhaps, to start the poorly equipped student in
the lower branches of the work, but the advanced
works, at least, were simply ridiculous. A notice
appeared in which the character of the books was
pointed out. The evidence of the worthlessness of
the entire series was so strong that the publishers
had it entirely rewritten by more competent au-
thors. Now came the oddest part of the whole

88 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

affair. The new series was issued under the name
of the same author as the old one, just as if the
acknowledgment of his total failure did not detract
from the value of his name as an author.

In 1860 a total echpse of the sun was visible in
British America. The shadow of the moon, start-
ing from near Vancouver's Island, crossed the
continent in a northeast direction, passed through
the central part of the Hudson Bay region, crossed
Hudson Bay itself and Greenland, then inclining
southward, swept over the Atlantic to Spain. As
this was the first eclipse of the kind which had re-
cently been visible, much interest was taken in its
observation. On the part of the Nautical Alma-
nac OflEice, I computed the path of the shadow and
the times of crossing certain points in it. The re-
sults were laid down on a map which was pubhshed
by the office. One party, fitted out in connection
with the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, was sent to Greenland. Admiral
Davis desired to send another, on behalf of his own
office, into the central regions of the continent. As
members of this party Mr. Ferrel and myself were
chosen. At the request of Professor Agassiz one
of the assistants in the Museum of Comparative
Zoology, Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, accompanied us.
More than twenty years later Mr. Scudder pub-
hshed a httle book describing some of our adven-
tures, which was illustrated with sketches showing
the experiences of a party in the wild West at that
time.

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 89

Our course lay from St. Paul across Minnesota
to the Red River of the North, thence north to
Fort Garry near the southern end of Lake Winni-
peg, then over the lake and some distance up
the Saskatchewan River. At St. Paul we paid our
respects to Governor Ramsey, afterward Senator
from Minnesota and Secretary of War. We were
much surprised at the extraordinary deference paid
by the community to a Mr. Burbank, a leading
citizen of the town, and owner of the stages which
we had to engage for our journey across the
country. He seemed to be a man whom every one
was afraid to offend. Even the local newspapers
were careful what they printed about matters in
which he was interested.

The two or three days which we passed in get-
ting things ready to start were rather duU. The
morning after our arrival I saw, during a morning
walk, on a hill just outside the town, a large new
building, on which the word " Athenaeum " was
conspicuously shown. The Boston Athenaeum
had a very fine library ; is it not possible that this
may have a beginning of something of the same
sort ? Animated by this hope, I went up the hill
and entered the building, which seemed to be
entirely vacant. The first words that met my
eyes were '^ Bar Room " painted over a door. It
was simply a theatre, and I left it much disap-
pointed.

Here we were joined by a young Methodist
clergyman, — Edward Eggleston, — and the four

90 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

of US, with our instruments and appKances, set out
on our journey of five days over the plains. On
the first day we followed partly the Hue of a pro-
jected railway, of which the embankments had
been completed, but on which work had, for some
reason, been stopped to await a more prosperous
season. Here was our first experience of towns on
paper. From the tone in which the drivers talked
of the places where we were to stop over night one
might have supposed that villages, i£ not cities,
were plentiful along our track. One example of
a town at that time wiU be enough. The princi-
pal place on oiu: route, judging from the talk, was
Breckenridge. We would reach it at the end of
the fourth day, where we anticipated a pleasant
change after camping out ia our tent for three
nights. It was after dark before we arrived, and
we looked eagerly for signs of the town we were
approaching.

The team at length stopped in front of an ob-
ject which, on careful examination in the darkness,
appeared to be the most primitive structure imagi-
nable. It had no foundations, and if it had a wall
at all, it was not more than two or three feet in
height. Imagine the roof taken ofE a house forty
feet long and twenty feet wide and laid down on
the ground, and you have the hotel and only build-
ing, imless perhaps a stable, in Breckenridge at
that time. The entrance was at one end. Going
in, a chimney was seen in the middle of the build-
ing. The floor was Uttle more than the bare

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 91

ground. On each side of the door, by the flicker-
ing Kght of a fire, we saw what looked Hke two
immense boxes. A second glance showed that
these boxes seemed to be filled with human heads
and legs. They were, in fact, the beds of the in-
habitants of Breckenridge. Beds for the arriving
travelers, if they existed at aU, which I do not
distinctly remember, were in the back of the house.
I think the other members of the party occupied
that portion. I simply spread my blanket out on
the hearth in front of the fire, wrapped up, and
slept as soundly as if the bed was the softest of
a regal palace.

At Fort Garry we were received by Governor
McTavish, with whom Captain Davis had had some
correspondence on the subject of our expedition,
and who gave us letters to the " factors " of the
Hudson Bay Company scattered along our route.
We found that the rest of our journey would have
to be made in a birch bark canoe. One of the
finest craft of this class was loaned us by the gov-
ernor. It had been, at some former time, the spe-
cial yacht of himselE or some visiting notable. It
was manned by eight half-breeds, men whose phy-
sical endurance I have never seen equaled.

It took three or four days to get everything
ready, and this interval was, of course, utilized by
Scudder in making his collections. He let the
fishermen of the region know that he wanted spe-
cimens of every kind of fish that could be found
in the lake. A very small reward stirred them into

92 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

activity, and, in due time, the fish were brought to
the naturalist, — but lo ! all nicely dressed and fit
for cooking. They were much surprised when told
that all their pains in dressing their catch had
spoiled it for the purposes of the visiting natural-
ist, who wanted everything just as it was taken
from the water.

Slow indeed was progress through the lake. A
canoe can be paddled only in almost smooth water,
and we were frequently stormbound on some des-
olate island or point of land for two or three days
at a time. When, after many adventures, some of
which looked like hairbreadth escapes, we reached
the Saskatchewan Eiver, the eclipse was only three
or four days ahead, and it became doubtful whether
we should reach our station in time for the obser-
vation. It was to come off on the morning of July
18, and, by dint of paddUng for twenty-four hovas
at a stretch, our men brought us to the place on
the evening before.

Now a new difficulty occurred. In the wet sea-
son the Saskatchewan inundates the low flat region
through which it flows, much like the Nile. The
country was practically under water. We found
the most elevated spot we could, took out our
instruments, mounted them on boxes or anything
else in the shallow puddles of water, and slept in
the canoe. Next morning the weather was hope-
lessly cloudy. We saw the darkness of the ecUpse
and nothing more.

Astronomers are greatly disappointed when, hav-

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 93

ing traveled halfway around the world to see an
eclipse, clouds prevent a sight of it ; and yet a
sense of relief accompanies the disappointment.
You are not responsible for the mishap ; perhaps
something would have broken down when you were
making your observations, so that they would have
failed in the best of weather ; but now you are re-
lieved from all responsibility. It was much easier
to go back and tell of the clouds than it would
have been to say that the telescope got disarranged
at the critical moment so that the observations
failed.

On our return across Minnesota we had an ex-
perience which I have always remembered as illus-
trative of the fallacy of all human testimony about
ghosts, rappings, and other phenomena of that
character. We spent two nights and a day at Fort
Snelling. Some of the officers were greatly sur-
prised by a celestial phenomenon of a very ex-
traordinary character which had been observed for
several nights past. A star had been seen, night
after night, rising in the east as usual, and starting
on its course toward the south. But instead of
continuing that course across the meridian, as stars
invariably had done from the remotest antiquity, it
took a turn toward the north, sunk toward the
horizon, and finally set near the north point of the
horizon. Of course an explanation was wanted.

My assurance that there must be some mistake
in the observation could not be accepted, because
this erratic course of the heavenly body had been

94 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

seen by all of them so plainly that no doubt could
exist on the subject. The men who saw it were
not of the ordinary untrained kind, but graduates
of West Point, who, if any one, ought to be free
from optical deceptions. I was confidently invited
to look out that night and see for myself. We all
watched with the greatest interest.

In due time the planet Mars was seen in the east
making its way toward the south. " There it is ! "
was the exclamation.

" Yes, there it is," said I. " Now that planet
is going to keep right on its course toward the
south."

" No, it is not," said they ; " you will see it turn
around and go down towards the north."

Hour after hour passed, and as the planet went
on its regular cotu-se, the other watchers began to
get a little nervous. It showed no signs of deviat-
ing from its course. We went out from time to
time to look at the sky.

" There it is," said one of the observers at length,
pointing to Capella, which was now just rising a
little to the east of north ; " there is the star set-

ting."

" No, it is n't," said I; " there is the star we have
been looking at, now quite inconspicuous near the
meridian, and that star which you think is setting
is really rising and will soon be higher up."

A very little additional watching showed that no
deviation of the general laws of Nature had occurred,
but that the observers of previous nights had

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 95

jumped at the conclusion that two objects, widely
apart in the heavens, were the same.

I passed more than four years in such life, sur-
roundings, and activities as I have described. In
1858 I received the degree of D. S. from the Law-
rence Scientific School, and thereafter remained on
the rolls of the university as a resident graduate.
Life in the new atmosphere was in such pleasant
and striking contrast to that of my former world
that I intensely enjoyed it. I had no very well
marked object in view beyond continuing studies
and researches in mathematical astronomy. Not
long after my arrival in Cambridge some one, in
speaking of Professor Peirce, remarked to me that
he had a European reputation as a mathematician.
It seemed to me that this was one of the most
exalted positions that a man could attain, and I
intensely longed for it. Yet there was no hurry.
Eeputation would come to him who deserved it by
his works ; works of the first class were the result
of careful thought and study, and not of hurry.
A suggestion had been made to me looking toward
a professorship in some Western college, but after
due consideration, I declined to consider the mat-
ter. Yet the necessity of being on the alert for
some opening must have seemed quite strong, be-
cause in 1860 I became a serious candidate for
the professorship of physics in the newly founded
Washington University at St. Louis. I was invited
to visit the university, and did so on my way to
observe the ecUpse of 1860. My competitor was

96 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

lieutenant J. M. Schofield of the United States
Army, then an instructor at West Point. It ■will
not surprise the reader to know that the man -who
was afterward to command the army of the United
States received the preference, so I patiently waited
more than another year.

IV

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY

In August, 1861, while I was passing my vacation
on Cape Ann, I received a letter from Dr. Gould,
then in Washington, informing me that a vacancy
was to be filled in the corps of professors of mathe-
matics attached to the Naval Observatory, and sug-
gesting that I might like the place. I was at first
indisposed to consider the proposition. Cambridge
was to me the focus of the science and learning of
our country. I feared that, so far as the world of
learning was concerned, I should be burying myself
by moving to Washington. The drudgery of night
work at the observatory would also interfere with
carrying on any regular investigation. But, on
second thought, having nothing in view at the
time, and the position being one from which I could
escape should it prove uncongenial, I decided to
try, and indited the following letter : —

Nautical Almanac Office,
Cambridge, Mass., August 22, 1861.

SiK, — I have the honor to apply to you for my ap-
pointment to the office of Professor of Mathematics in
the United States Navy.

I would respectfully refer you to Commander Charles

98 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Henry Davis, U. S. N., Professor Benjamin Peirce, of
Harvard University, Dr. Benjamin A. Gould, of Cam-
bridge, and Professor Joseph Henry, Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, for any information respecting
me which will enable you to judge of the propriety of
my appointment.

With high respect,

Your obedient servant,

Simon Newcomb,

Assistant, Nautical Ahnanac.
Hon. Gideon "Welij!8,

Secretary of the Navy,

Washington, D. C.

I also wrote to Captain Davis, who was then on
duty in the Navy Department, telling him what I
had done, but made no further effort. Great was
my surprise when, a month later, I found in the
post-office, without the slightest premonition, a very
large official envelope, containing my commission
duly signed by Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States. The confidence in the valor, abili-
ties, etc., of the appointee, expressed in the com-
mission, was very assuring. Accompanying it was
a letter from the Secretary of the Navy direct-
ing me to report to the Bureau of Ordnance and
Hydrography, in Washington, for such duty as it
might assign me. I arrived on October 6, and im-
mediately called on Professor J. S. Hubbard, who
was the leading astronomer of the observatory.
On the day following I reported as directed, and
was sent to Captain GiUiss, the recently appoiated
Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, before

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 99

whom I stood with much trepidation. In reply to
his questions I had to confess my entire inexpe-
rience in ohservatory work or the making of astro-
nomical ohservations. A coast survey observer had
once let me look through his transit instrument
and try to observe the passage of a star. On the
ecHpse expedition mentioned in the last chapter I
had used a sextant. This was about all the expe-
rience in practical astronomy which I could claim.
In fact I had never been inside of an observatory,
except on two or three occasions at Cambridge as a
visitor. The captain reassured me by saying that
no great experience was expected of a newcomer,
and told me that I should go to work on the transit
instrument under Professor Yarnall, to whose care
I was then confided.

As the existence of a corps of professors of
mathematics is pecuKar to our navy, as well as an
apparent, perhaps a real, anomaly, some account of
it may be of interest. Early in the century — one
hardly knows when the practice began — the Sec-
retary of the Navy, in virtue of his general powers,
used to appoint men as professors of mathematics
in the navy, to go to sea and teach the midship-
men the art of navigation. In 1844, when work
at the observatory was about to begin, no provision
for astronomers was made by Congress. The most
convenient way of supplying this want was to have
the Secretary appoint professors of mathematics,
and send them to the observatory on duty.

A few years later the Naval Academy was

100 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

founded at Annapolis, and a similar course was
pursued to provide it with a corps of instructors.
Up to this time the professors had no form of ap-
pointment except a warrant from the Secretary of
the Navy. Early in the history of the academy the
midshipmen burned a professor in effigy. They
were brought before a court-martial on the charge
of disrespect to a superior officer, but pleaded that
the professor, not holding a commission, was not
their superior officer, and on this plea were ac-
quitted. Congress thereupon took the matter up,
provided that the number of professors should not
exceed twelve, and that they should be commis-
sioned by the President by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate. This raised their rank to
that of a commissioned corps in the navy. They
were to perform such duty as the Secretary of the
Navy might direct, and were, for the most part,
divided between the Naval Academy and the Ob-
servatory.

During the civil war some complaint was made
that the midshipmen coming from the academy
were not well trained ia the duties of a seagoing
officer ; and it was supposed that this was due to
too much of their time being given to scientific
studies. This was attributed to the professors, with
the result that nearly all those attached to the
academy were detached during the four years fol-
lowing the close of the civil war and ordered else-
where, mostly to the observatory. Their places
were taken by Kne officers who, in the intervals

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 101

between their turns of sea duty, were made heads
of departments and teachers of the midshipmen in
nearly every branch.

This state of things led to the enactment of a
law (in 1869, I think), " that hereafter no vacancy
in the grade of professors of mathematics in the
navy shall be filled."

In 1873 this provision was annulled by a law,
again providing for a corps of twelve professors,
three of whom should have the relative rank of
captain, four of commander, and the remainder of
lieutenant-commander or lieutenant.

Up to 1878 the Secretary of the Navy was placed
under no restrictions as to his choice of a professor.
He could appoint any citizen whom he supposed to
possess the necessary qualifications. Then it was
enacted that, before appointment, a candidate should
pass a medical and a professional examination.

I have said that the main cause of hesitation
in making my application arose from my aversion
to very late night work. It soon became evident
that there was less ground than I had supposed for
apprehension on this point. There was a free and
easy way of carrying on work which was surprising
to one who had supposed it aU arranged on strict
plans, and done according to rule and discipline.
Professor Yarnall, whose assistant I was, was an ex-
tremely pleasant gentleman to be associated with.
Although one of the most industrious workers at
the observatory, there was nothing of the martinet
about him. He showed me how to handle the in-

102 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

strument and record my observations. There was
a Nautical Almanac and a Catalogue of Stars. Out
of these each of us could select what he thought
best to observe.

The custom was that one of us should come
on every clear evening, make observations as long
as he chose, and then go home. The transit in-
strument was at one end of the building and the
mural circle, in charge of Professor Hubbard, at
the other. He was weak in health, and unable to
do much continuous work of any kind, especially
the hard work of observing. He and I arranged
to observe on the same nights ; but I soon found
that there was no concerted plan between the two
sets of observers. The instruments were old-fash-
ioned ones, of which mine could determine only the
right ascension of a star and his only its decHna-
tion ; hence to completely determine the position of
a celestial body, observations must be made on the
same object with both instruments. But I soon
found that there was no concert of action of this
kind. Hubbard, on the mural circle, had his plan
of work ; Yarnall and myseK, on the transit, had
ours. When either Hubbard or myself got tired,
we could " vote it cloudy " and go out for a plate
of oysters at a neighboring restaurant.

In justice to Captain GiUiss it must be said that
he was not in any way responsible for this lack of
system. It grew out of the origin and history of the
establishment and the inaction of Congress. The
desirableness of our having a national observatory

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 103

of the same rank as those of other countries was
pointed out from time to time by eminent states-
men from the first quarter of the century. John
Quincy Adams had, both -while he filled the presi-
dential office and afterward, made active efEorts in
this direction ; but there were grave doubts whether
Congress had any constitutional authority to erect
such an institution, and the project got mixed up
with parties and pohtics. So strong was the feel-
ing on the subject that, when the Coast Survey was
organized, it was expressly provided that it should
not establish an astronomical observatory.

The outcome of the matter was that, in 1842,
when Congress at length decided that we should
have our national observatory, it was not called
such, but was designated as a " house " to serve as
a depot for charts and instruments for the navy.
But every one knew that an observatory was meant.
GiUiss was charged with its erection, and paid a
visit to Europe to consult with astronomers there on
its design, and to order the necessary instruments.
When he got through with this work and reported it
as completed he was relieved, and Lieutenant Mat-
thew F. Maury was appointed superintendent of the
new institution.

Maury, although (as he wrote a few years later)
quite without experience in the use of astronomical
instruments, went at his work with great energy
and efficiency, so that, for two or three years, the
institution bade fair to take a high place in science.
Then he branched off into what was, from a prac-

104 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

tical standpoint, the vastly more important work
of studying the winds and currents of the ocean.
The epoch-making character of his investigations
in this line, and their importance to navigation
when ships depended on sails for their motive
power, were soon acknowledged by aU maritime
nations, and the fame which he acquired in pur-
suing them added greatly to the standing of the
institution at which the work was done, though in
reaHty an astronomical outfit was in no way neces-
sary to it. The new work was so absorbing that
he seemed to have lost interest in the astronom-
ical side of the establishment, which he left to his
assistants. The results were that on this side
things fell into the condition I have described, and
stayed there until Maury resigned his commission
and cast his fortunes with the Confederacy. Then
GilHss took charge and had to see what could be
done under the circumstances.

It soon became evident to him that no system
of work of the first order of importance could be
initiated until the instrumental equipment was
greatly improved. The clocks, perfection in which
is almost at the bottom of good work, were quite
unfit for use. The astronomical clock with which
Yarnall and I made our observations kept worse
time than a high-class pocket watch does to-day.
The instruments were antiquated and defective in
several particulars. Before real work could be
commenced new ones must be procured. But the
civil war was in progress, and the times were not

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 105

favorable to immediately securing them. That the
work of the observatory was kept up was due to
a feeling of pride on the part of our authorities
in continuing it without interruption through the
conflict. The personnel was as insufficient as the
instruments. On it devolved not only the making
of the astronomical observations, but the issue of
charts and chronometers to the temporarily im-
mense navy. In fact the observatory was still a
depot of charts for the naval service, and contin-
ued to be such until the Hydrographic Office was
estabUshed in 1866.

In 1863 Gilliss obtained authority to have the
most pressing wants supplied by the construction of
a great transit circle by Pistor and Martins in Ber-
Kn. He had a comprehensive plan of work vdth
this instrument when it should arrive, but deferred
putting any such plan in operation until its actual
reception.

Somehow the work of editing, explaining, and
preparing for the press the new series of observa-
tions made by Yarnall and myself with our old
transit instrument devolved on me. To do this
in the most satisfactory way, it was necessary to
make a careful study of the methods and system at
the leading observatories of other countries in the
Une we were pursuing, especially Greenwich. Here
I was struck by the superiority of their system to
ours. Everything was there done on an exact and
uniform plan, and one which seemed to me better
adapted to get the best results than ours was. For

106 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the non-astronomical reader it may be remarked
that after an astronomer has made and recorded
his observations, a large amount of calculation is
necessary to obtain the result to which they lead.
Making such calculations is called " reducing " the
observations. Now in the previous history of the
observatory, the astronomers fell into the habit of
every one not only making his observations in his
own way, but reducing them for himself. Thus
it happened that YarnaU had been making and
reducing his observations in his own way, and I,
on alternate nights, had been making and redu-
cing mine in my way, which was modeled after the
Greenwich fashion, and therefore quite difEerent
from his. Now I suddenly found myself face to
face with the problem of putting these two hetero-
geneous things together so as to make them look
like a homogeneous whole. I was extremely mor-
tified to see how poor a showing would be made in
the eyes of foreign astronomers. But I could do
nothing more than to describe the work and meth-
ods in such a way as to keep in the background
the want of system that characterized them.

Notwithstanding all these drawbacks of the pre-
sent, the prospect of future success seemed bril-
liant. GiUiss had the unlimited confidence of the
Secretary of the Navy, had a family very popular
in Washington society, was enthusiastically de-
voted to building up the work of the observatory,
and was drawing around him the best young men
that could be found to do that work. He made it

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 107

a point that his relations with his scientific subor-
dinates should be not only official, but of the most
friendly social character. AU were constantly in-
vited to his charming family circle. It was from
the occasional talks thus arising that I learned the
details of his plan of work with the coming instru-
ment.

In 1862 GiUiss had the working force increased
by the appointment of four " aides," as they were
then called, — a number that was afterwards re-
duced to three. This was the beginning of the
corps of three assistant astronomers, which is still
maintained. It will be of interest to know that
the first aide was Asaph Hall ; but before his ap-
pointment was made, an impediment, which for a
time looked serious, had to be overcome. GiUiss
desired that the aide should hold a good social and
family position. The salary being only $1000,
this required that he should not be married. Hall
being married, with a growing family, his appoint-
ment was long objected to, and it was only through
much persuasion on the part of Hubbard and my-
self that GiUiss was at length induced to withdraw
his objections. Among other early appointees
were William Harkness and John A. Eastman,
whose subsequent careers in connection with the
observatory are weU known.

The death of Professor Hubbard in 1863 led to
my taking his place, in charge of the mural circle,
early in September of that year. This gave me
an opportunity of attempting a little improvement

108 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

in the arrangements. I soon became conscious of
the fact, which no one had previously taken much
account of, that upon the plan of each man re-
ducing his own observations, not only was there
an entire lack of homogeneity in the work, but the
more work one did at night the more he had to
do by day. It was with some trepidation that I
presented the case to GiUiss, who speedily saw that
work done with the instruments should be regarded
as that of the observatory, and reduced on a uni-
form plan, instead of being considered as the pro-
perty of the individual who happened to make it.
Thus was introduced the first step toward a proper
official system.

In February, 1865, the observatory sustained
the greatest loss it had ever sufEered, in the sudden
death of its superintendent. What it would have
grown to had he lived it is useless to guess, but
there is Httle doubt that its history would have
been quite different from what it is.

Soon afterward Admiral Davis left his position
as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation to take the
subordinate one of Superintendent of the Observa-
tory. This step was very gratifying to me. Davis
had not only a great interest in scientific work,
especially astronomy, but a genuine admiration of
scientific men which I have never seen exceeded,
accompanied with a corresponding love of associa-
tion with them and their work.

In October, 1865, occurred what was, in my eyes,
the greatest event in the history of the observatory.

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 109

The new transit circle arrived from Berlin in its
boxes. Now for the first time in its history, the ob-
servatory would have a meridian instrument worthy
of it, and would, it was hoped, be able to do the
finest work in at least one branch of astronomy.
To my great delight, Davis placed me in charge of
it. The last three months of the year were taken
up with mounting it in position and making those
investigations of its peculiarities which are neces-
sary before an instrument of the kind is put into
regular use. On the 1st day of January, 1866,
this was all done, and we were ready to begin
operations. An opportunity thus arose of seeing
what we could do in the way of a regular and
well-planned piece of work. In the greater clear-
ness of our sky, and the more southern latitude of
our observatory, we had two great advantages over
Greenwich. Looking back at his first two or three
years of work at the observatory, Maury wrote to
a friend, " We have beaten Greenwich hollow."
It may be that I felt like trying to do the same
thing over again. At any rate, I mapped out a
plan of work the execution of which would require
four years.

It was a piece of what, in astronomy, is called
" fundamental work," in which results are to be
obtained independent of any previously obtained
by other observers. It had become evident to me
from our own observations, as well as from a study
of those made at European observatories, that an
error in the right ascension of stars, so that stars

110 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

in opposite quarters of the heavens would not
agree, might very possibly have crept into nearly all
the modern observations at Greenwich, Paris, and
Washington. The determination of this error was
no easy matter. It was necessary that, whenever
possible, observations should be continued through
the greater part of the twenty-four hours. One
observer must be at work with comparative steadi-
ness from nine o'clock in the morning until mid-
night or even dawn of the morning following.
This requirement was, however, less exacting than
might appear when stated. One half the nights
would, as a general rule, be cloudy, and an observer
was not expected to work on Sunday. Hence no
one of the four observers would probably have to
do such a day's work as this more than thirty or
forty times in a year.

AU this was hard work enough in itself, but
conditions existed which made it yet harder. No
houses were then provided for astronomers, and the
observatory itself was situated in one of the most
unhealthy parts of the city. On two sides it was
bounded by the Potomac, then pregnant with ma-
laria, and on the other two, for nearly half a mile,
was found little but frame buildings filled with
quartermaster's stores, with here and there a few
negro huts. Most of the observers lived a mile or
more from the observatory ; during most of the
time I was two miles away. It was not considered
safe to take even an hour's sleep at the observa-
tory. The result was that, if it happened to clear

LIFE AND WOBK AT AN OBSERVATORY 111

off after a cloudy evening, I frequently arose from
my bed at any hour of the night or morning and
walked two miles to the observatory to make some
observation included in the programme.

This was certainly a new departure from the free
and easy way in which we had been proceeding, and
it was one which might be unwelcome to any but
a zealous astronomer. As I should get the Hon's
share of credit for its results, whether I wanted to
or not, my interest in the work was natural. But
it was unreasonable to expect my assistants, one or
two of whom had been raised to the rank of pro-
fessor, to feel the same interest, and it is very cred-
itable to their zeal that we pursued it for some
time as well as we did. If there was any serious
dissatisfaction with the duty, I was not informed
of that fact.

During the second year of this work Admiral Da-
vis was detached and ordered to sea. The question
of a successor interested many besides ourselves.
Secretary Welles considered the question what pol-
icy should be pursued in the appointment. Profes-
sor Henry took part in the matter by writing the
secretary a letter, in which he urged the appoiat-
ment of an astronomer as head of the institution.
His position prevented his supporting any particu-
lar candidate ; so he submitted a list of four names,
any one of which would be satisfactory. These
were : Professor William Chauvenet, Dr. B. A.
Gould, Professor J. H. C. Coffin, U. S. N., and Mr.
James Ferguson. The latter held a civil position

112 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

at the observatory, under the title of " assistant
astronomer," and was at the time the longest in
service of any of its force.

A different view was urged upon the secretary
in terms substantially these : " Professors so able
as those of the observatory require no one to di-
rect their work. All that the observatory really
needs is an administrative head who shall preserve
order, look after its business generally, and see that
everything goes smoothly." Such a head the navy
can easily supply.

The secretary allowed it to be given out that he
would be glad to hear from the professors upon the
subject. I thereupon went to him and expressed
my preference for Professor Coffin. He asked me,
" How would it do to have a purely administrative
head?"

I replied that we might get along for a time if
he did not interfere with our work.

"No," said the secretary, "he shall not inter-
fere. That shall be understood."

As I left him there was, to my inexperienced
mind, something very odd in this function, or ab-
sence of function, of the head of an establishment;
but of course T had to bow to superior wisdom and
could say nothing.

The policy of Commodore (afterward Rear-Ad-
miral) Sands, the incoming superintendent, toward
the professors was liberal in the last degree. Each
was to receive due credit for what he did, and was
in every way stimulated to do his best at any piece

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 113

of scientific work he might undertake with the ap-
proval of the superintendent. Whether he wanted
to observe an eclipse, determine the longitude of a
town or interior station, or undertake some abstruse
investigation, every facility for doing it and every
encouragement to go on with it was granted him.

Under this poHcy the observatory soon reached
the zenith of its fame and popularity. Whenever
a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an acces-
sible region parties were sent out to observe it. In
1869 three professors, I being one, were sent to
Des Moines, Iowa, to observe the solar eclipse which
passed across the country in June of that year. As
a part of this work, I prepared and the observatory
issued a detailed set of instructions to observers in
towns at each edge of the shadow-path to note the
short duration of totality. The object was to deter-
mine the exact point to which the shadow extended.
At this same eclipse Professor Harkness shared with
Professor Young of Princeton the honor of discov-
ering the brightest line in the spectrum of the sun's
corona. The year following parties were sent to
the Mediterranean to observe an eclipse which oc-
curred in December, 1870. I went to Gibraltar,
although the observation of the ecHpse was to me
only a minor object. Some incidents connected
with this European trip will be described in a sub-
sequent chapter.

The reports of the ecKpse parties not only de-
scribed the scientific observations in great detail,
but also the travels and experiences, and were some-

114 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

times marked by a piquancy not common in official
documents. These reports, others pertaining to
longitude, and investigations of various kinds were
published in full and distributed with great liberal-
ity. All this activity grew out of the stimulating
power and careful attention to business of the head
of the observatory and the abihty of the young
professors of his staff. It was very pleasant to the
latter to wear the brilliant uniform of their rank,
enjoy the protection of the Navy Department, and
be looked upon, one and all, as able official astro-
nomers. The voice of one of our scientific men who
returned from a visit abroad declaring that one of
our eclipse reports was the laughing-stock of Europe
was drowned in the general applause.

In the latter part of 1869 I had carried forward
the work with the transit circle as far as it could
be profitably pursued under existing conditions.
On working up my observations, the error which I
had suspected in the adopted positions of the stars
was proved to be real. But the discovery of this
error was due more to the system of observation,
especially the pursuit of the latter through the day
and night, than it was to any excellence of the
instrument. The latter proved to have serious de-
fects which were exaggerated by the unstable char-
acter of the clayey soil of the hiU on which the ob-
servatory was situated. Other defects also existed,
which seemed to preclude the likelihood that the
future work of the instrument would be of a high
class. I had also found that very difficult mathe-

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 115

matical investigations were urgently needed to un-
ravel one of the greatest mysteries of astronomy,
that of the moon's motion. This was a much more
important work than making observations, and I
wished to try my hand at it. So in the autumn I
made a formal appUcation to the Secretary of the
Navy to be transferred from the observatory to the
Nautical Almanac Office for the purpose of enga-
ging in researches on the motion of the moon. On
handing this application to the superintendent he
suggested that the work in question might just as
well be done at the observatory. I replied that
I thought that the business of the observatory was
to make and reduce astronomical observations with
its instruments, and that the making of investi-
gations of the kind I had in view had always been
considered to belong to the Nautical Almanac Of-
fice. He repHed that he deemed it equally appro-
priate for the observatory to undertake it. As my
objection was founded altogether on a principle
which he refused to accept, and as by doing the
work at the observatory I should have ready access
to its Hbrary, I consented to the arrangement he
proposed. Accordingly, in forwarding my applica-
tion, he asked that my order should be so worded
as not to detach me from the observatory, but to
add the duty I asked for to that which I was
already performing.

So far as I was personally concerned, this change
was fortunate rather than otherwise. As things
go in Washington, the man who does his work in

116 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

a fine pubKc building can gain consideration for
it much more readily than if he does it in a hired
office like that which the " Nautical Almanac " then
occupied. My continued presence on the observa-
tory staff led to my taking part in two of the great
movements of the next ten years, the construction
and inauguration of the great telescope and the
observations of the transit of Venus. But for the
time being my connection with the regular work of
the observatory ceased.

On the retirement of Admiral Sands in 1874,
Admiral Davis returned to the observatory, and
continued in charge until his death in February,
1877. The principal event of this second admin-
istration was the dispatch of parties to observe the
transit of Venus. Of this I shall speak in fuU in
a subsequent chapter.

One incident, although of no public importance,
was of some interest at the time. This was a visit
of the only emperor who, I believe, had ever set
foot on our shores, — Dom Pedro of Brazil. He
had chosen the occasion of our Centennial for a
visit to this country, and excited great interest
during his stay, not only by throwing off all im-
perial reserve during his travels, but by the curi-
osity and vigor with which he went from place to
place examining and studying everything he could
find, and by the singular extent of his knowledge
on almost every subject of a scientific or technical
character. A Philadelphia engineer with whom he
talked was quoted as saying that his knowledge of

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 117

engineering was not merely of the ordinary kind
to be expected in an intelligent man, but extended
to the minutest details and latest improvements in
the building of bridges, which was the specialty of
the engineer in question.

Almost as soon as he arrived in Washington I
received the following letter by a messenger from
the Arlington Hotel : —

Mb.:

En arrivant a Washington j'ai tout-de-suite songe a
votre observatoire, on vous avez acquis tant de droit a
I'estime de tout ceux qui achevent la science. Je m'y
rendrai done aujourd'hui a 7 heures du soir, et je compte
vous y trouver, surtout pour vous remercier de votre
beau m^moire que j'ai re§u peu avant mon depart de
mon pays, et que je n'ai pas pu, par consequent, appre-
cier autant que je I'aurais voulu. En me plaisant de
I'espoir de vous connaitre personnellement je vous prie de
me compter parmi vos affectionnes.

D. Pedro d'Alcantaba.

7 Mai, 1876.

Like other notes which I subsequently received
from him, it was in his own autograph throughout :
if he brought any secretary with him on his travels
I never heard of it.

The letter placed me in an embarrassing posi-
tion, because its being addressed to me was in con-
travention of all official propriety. Of course I
lost no time in calling on him and trying to explain
the situation. I told him that Admiral Davis,
whom he well knew from his being in command
of the BraziUan station a few years before, was

118 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the head of the observatory, and hinted as plainly
as I could that a notification of the coming of such
a visitor as he should be sent to the head of the
institution. But he refused to take the hint, and
indicated that he expected me to arrange the whole
matter for him. This I did by going to the obser-
vatory and frankly explaining the matter to Admi-
ral Davis. Happily the latter was not a stickler
for official forms, and was cast in too large a mould
to take ofEense where none was intended. At his
invitation I acted as one of the receiving party.
The carriage drove up at the appointed hour, and
its occupant was welcomed by the admiral at the
door with courtly dignity. The visitor had no
time to spend in preliminaries ; he wished to look
through the estabhshment immediately.

The first object to meet his view was a large
marble-cased clock which, thirty years before, had
acquired some celebrity from being supposed to
embody the first attempt to apply electricity to
the recording of astronomical observations. It was
said to have cost a large sum, paid partly as a re-
ward to its inventor. Its only drawbacks were
that it would not keep time and had never, so far
as I am aware, served any purpose but that of an
ornament. The first surprise came when the visitor
got down on his hands and knees in front of the
clock, reached his hands under it, and proceeded
to examine its supports. We all wondered what
it could mean. When he arose, it was explained.
He did not see how a clock supported in this way

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 119

could keep the exact time necessary in the work of
an astronomer. So we had to tell him that the
clock was not used for this purpose, and that he
must wait until we visited the observing rooms to
see our clocks properly supported.

The only evidence of the imperial will came out
when he reached the great telescope. The moon,
near first quarter, was then shining, but the night
was more than half cloudy, and there was no hope
of obtaining more than a chance glimpse at it
through the clouds. But he wished to see the
moon through the telescope. I replied that the
sky was now covered, and it was very doubtful
whether we should get a view of the moon. But
he required that the telescope should be at once
pointed at it. This was done, and at that moment
a clear space appeared between the clouds. I re-
marked upon the fact, but he seemed to take it as
a matter of course that the cloud would get out of
the way when he wanted to look.

I made some remark about the " vernier " of one
of the circles on the telescope.

" Why do you call it a vernier ? " said he. *' Its
proper term is a nonius, because Nonius was its in-
ventor and Vernier took the idea from him."

In this the national spirit showed itself. Nonius,
a Portuguese, had invented something on a similar
principle and yet essentially different from the
modern vernier, invented by a Frenchman of that
name.

Accompanying the party was a little girl, ten or

120 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

twelve years old, who, though an interested spec-
tator, modestly kept in the background and said
nothing. On her arrival home, however, she broke
her silence by running upstairs with the exclama-
tion, —

" Oh, Mamma, he 's the funniest emperor you
ever did see ! "

My connection with the observatory ceased Sep-
tember 15, 1877, when I was placed in charge of
the Nautical Ahnanac Office. It may not, how-
ever, be out of place to summarize the measures
which have since been taken both by the Navy
Department and by eminent officers of the service
to place the work of the institution on a sound
basis. One great difficulty in doing this arises
from the fact that neither Congress nor the Navy
Department has ever stated the object which the
government had in view in erecting the observa-
tory, or assigned to it any well-defined pubHc
functions. The superintendent and his stafE have
therefore been left to solve the question what to
do from time to time as best they could.

In the spring of 1877 Kear- Admiral John Rodg-
ers became the superintendent of the observatory.
As a cool and determined fighter during the civil
war he was scarcely second even to Farragut, and
he was at the same time one of the ablest offi-
cers and most estimable men that our navy ever
included in its ranks. " I would rather be John
Rodgers dead than any other man I know living,"
was said by one of the observatory assistants after

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY 121

his death. Not many months after his accession
he began to consider the question whether the wide
liberty which had been allowed the professors in
choosing their work was adapted to attain success.
The Navy Department also desired to obtain some
expressions of opinion on the subject. The result
was a discussion and an of&cial paper, not emanat-
ing from the admiral, however, in which the duty
of the head of the observatory was defined in the
following terms : —

" The superintendent of the observatory should
be a Une officer of the navy, of high rank, who
should attend to the business affairs of the institu-
tion, thus leaving the professors leisure for their
proper work."

Although he did not entirely commit himself to
this view, he was under the impression that to get
the best work out of the professors their hearts
must be in it ; and this would not be the case if
any serious restraint was placed upon them as to
the work they should undertake.

After Rodgers's death Vice- Admiral Rowan was
appointed superintendent. About this time it would
seem that the department was again disposed to
inquire into the results of the liberal policy here-
tofore pursued. Commander (since Rear-Admiral)
William T. Sampson was ordered to the observa-
tory, not as its head, but as assistant to the super-
intendent. He was one of the most proficient men
in practical physics that the navy has ever produced.
I beheve that one reason for choosing so able and

122 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

energetic an officer for the place was to see if any
improvement could be made on the system. As I
was absent at the Cape of Good Hope to observe
the transit of Venus during the most eventful oc-
casion of his administration, I have very little
personal knowledge of it. It seems, however, that
newspaper attacks were made on him, in which he
was charged with taking possession of all the in-
struments of the observatory but two, and placing
them in charge of naval officers who were not pro-
ficient in astronomical science. In reply he wrote
an elaborate defense of his action to the " New
York Herald, " which appeared in the number for
February 13, 1883. The following extract is all
that need find a place in the present connection.

When I came here on duty a little more than a year
since, I found these instruments disused. The transit
instrument had not been used since 1878, and then only
at intervals for several years previous ; the mural circle
had not been used since 1877 ; the prime vertical had
not been used since 1867. These instruments had been
shamefully neglected and much injured thereby. . . .
The small equatorial and comet seeker were in the same
disgraceful condition, and were unfit for any real work.

Admiral Franklin was made superintendent some-
time in 1883, I believe, and issued an order pro-
viding that the work of the observatory should be
planned by a board consisting of the superin-
tendent, the senior line officer, and the senior pro-
fessor. Professors or officers in charge of instru-
ments were required to prepare a programme for

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATOKY 123

their proposed work each year in advance, which
programme would be examined by the board. Of
the work of this board or its proceedings, no clear
knowledge can be gleaned from the published re-
ports, nor do I know how long it continued.

In 1885 Secretary Whitney referred to the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences the question of the
advisability of proceeding promptly with the erec-
tion of a new naval observatory upon the site pur-
chased in 1880. The report of the academy was
in the affirmative, but it was added that the obser-
vatory should be erected and named as a national
one, and placed under civilian administration. The
year following Congress made the preUminary
appropriation for the commencement of the new
building, but no notice was taken of the recom-
mendation of the academy.

In 1891 the new buildings were approaching
completion, and Secretary Tracy entered upon the
question of the proper administration of the obser-
vatory. He discussed the subject quite fully in
his annual report for that year, stating his con-
clusion in the following terms : —

I therefore recommend the adoption of legislation
which shall instruct the President to appoint, at a suf-
ficient salary, without restriction, from persons either
within or outside the naval service, the ablest and most
accomplished astronomer who can be found for the posi-
tion of superintendent.

At the following session of Congress Sena-
tor Hale introduced an amendment to the naval

124 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

appropriation bill, providing for the expenses of a
commission to be appointed by the Secretary of the
Navy, to consider and report upon the organization
of the observatory. The House non-concurred in
this amendment, and it was dropped from the bill.

At the same session, all the leading astronomers
of the country united in a petition to Congress,
asking that the recommendation of the Secretary
of the Navy should be carried into effect. After
a very patient hearing of arguments on the subject
by Professor Boss and others, the House Naval
Committee reported unanimously against the mea-
sure, claiming that the navy had plenty of officers
able to administer the observatory in a satisfactory
way, and that there was therefore no necessity for
a civilian head.

Two years later. Senator MorriU ofEered an
amendment to the legislative appropriation bill, pro-
viding that the superintendent of the observatory
should be selected from civil life, and be learned in
the science of astronomy. He supported his amend-
ment by letters from a number of leading astro-
nomers of the country in reply to questions which
he had addressed to them.

This amendment, after being approved by the
Senate Naval Committee, was referred by the Com-
mittee on Appropriations to the Secretary of the
Navy. He recommended a modification of the
measure so as to provide for the appointment of a
" Director of Astronomy," to have charge of the
astronomical work of the observatory, which should,

LIFE AND WOKK AT AN OBSERVATORY 125

however, remain under a naval officer as superin-
tendent. This arrangement was severely criticised
in the House by Mr. Thomas B. Eeed, of Maine,
and the whole measure was defeated in conference.

In 1892, when the new observatory was being
occupied, the superintendent promulgated regula-
tions for its work. These set forth in great detail
what the observatory should do. Its work was
divided into nine departments, each with its chief,
besides which there was a chief astronomical assist-
ant and a chief nautical assistant to the superin-
tendent, making eleven chiefs in all. The duties
of each chief were comprehensively described. As
the entire scientific force of the observatory num-
bered some ten or twelve naval officers, professors,
and assistant astronomers, with six computers, it
may be feared that some of the nine departments
were short-handed.

In September, 1894, new regulations were estab-
lished by the Secretary of the Navy, which provided
for an " Astronomical Director," who was to " have
charge of and to be responsible for the direction,
scope, character, and preparation for publication of
all work purely astronomical, which is performed at
the Naval Observatory." As there was no law for
this office, it was filled first by the detail of Pro-
fessor Harkness, who served until his retirement in
1899, then by the detail of Professor Brown, who
served until March, 1901.

In 1899 the Secretary of the Navy appointed a
Board of Visitors to the observatory, comprising

126 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Senator Chandler, of New Hampshire, Hon. A. G.
Dayton, House of Representatives, and Professors
Pickering, Comstock, and Hale. This board, " in
order to obviate a criticism that the astronomical
work of the observatory has not been prosecuted
with that vigor and continuity of purpose which
should be shown in a national observatory," re-
commended that the Astronomical Director and
the Director of the Nautical Almanac should be
civil officers, with sufficient salaries. A bill to this
effect was introduced into each House of Congress
at the next session, and referred to the respective
naval committees, but never reported.

In 1901 Congress, in an amendment to the
naval appropriation bill, provided a permanent
Board of Visitors to the observatory, in whom
were vested full powers to report upon its condition
and expenditures, and to prescribe its plan of work.
It was also provided in the same law that the super-
intendent of the observatory should, until further
legislation by Congress, be a line officer of the
navy of a rank not below that of captain. In the
first annual report of this board is the following
clause : —

" We wish to record our deliberate and unani-
mous judgment that the law should be changed so
as to provide that the official head of the observa-
tory — perhaps styled simply the Director — should
be an eminent astronomer appointed by the Presi-
dent by and with the consent of the Senate."

Although the board still has a legal existence,

LIFE AND WOKK AT AN OBSERVATORY 127

Congress, in 1902, practically suspended its func-
tions by declining to make any appropriation for
its expenses. Moreover, since the detachment of
Professor Brown, Astronomical Director, no one
has been appointed to fill the vacancy thus aris-
ing. At the time of the present writing, there-
fore, the entire responsibility for planning and
directing the work of the observatory is officially
vested in the naval superintendent, as it was at
the old observatory.

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK

One hardly knows where, in the history of science,
to look for an important movement that had its
effective start in so pure and simple an accident as
that which led to the building of the great Wash-
ington telescope, and went on to the discovery of
the sateUites of Mars. Very difEerent might have
been a chapter of astronomical history, but for the
accident of Mr. Cyrus Field, of Atlantic cable fame,
having a small dinner party at the Arlington Hotel,
Washington, in the winter of 1870. Among the
guests were Senators Hamhn and Casserly, Mr. J.
E. Hilgard of the Coast Survey, and a young son
of Mr. Field, who had spent the day in seeing the
sights of Washington. Being called upon for a
recital of his experiences, the youth described his
visit to the observatory, and expressed his surprise
at finding no large telescope. The only instrument
they could show him was much smaller and more
antiquated than that of Mr. Rutherfurd in New
York.

The guests listened to this statement with incre-
duUty, and applied to Mr. Hilgard to know whether
the visitor was not mistaken, through a failure to

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 129

find the great telescope of the ohservatory. Mr.
Hilgard replied that the statement was quite cor-
rect, the observatory having been equipped at a
time when the construction of great refracting tele-
scopes had not been commenced, and even their
possibility was doubted.

" This ought not to be," said one of the sen-
ators. " Why is it so ? "

Mr. Hilgard mentioned the reluctance of Con-
gress to appropriate money for a telescope.

" It must be done," replied the senator. " You
have the case properly represented to Congress,
and we will see that an appropriation goes through
the Senate at least."

It chanced that this suggestion had an official
basis which was not known to the guests. Al-
though Mr. Alvan Clark had already risen into
prominence as a maker of telescopes, his genius
in this direction had not been recognized outside
of a Hmited scientific circle. The civil war had
commenced just as he had completed the largest
refracting telescope ever made, and the excitement
of the contest, as well as the absorbing character of
the questions growing out of the reconstruction
of the Union, did not leave our public men much
time to think about the making of telescopes.
Mr. Clark had, however, been engaged by Cap-
tain GiUiss only a year or two after the latter had
taken charge of the observatory, to come to Wash-
ington, inspect our instruments, and regrind their
glasses. The result of his work was so striking

130 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

to the observers using the instruments before and
after his work on them, that no doubt of his abihty
could be felt. Accordingly, in preparing items for
the annual reports of the observatory for the years
1868 and 1869, I submitted one to the superin-
tendent setting forth the great deficiency of the
observatory in respect to the power of its telescope,
and the ability of Mr. Clark to make good that de-
ficiency. These were embodied in the reports. It
was recommended that authority be given to order
a telescope of the largest size from Mr. Clark.

It happened, however, that Secretary Welles had
announced in his annual reports as his policy that he
would recommend no estimates for the enlargement
and improvement of public works in his depart-
ment, but would leave all matters of this kind to
be acted on by Congress as the latter might deem
best. As the telescope was thrown out of the
regular estimates by this rule, this subject had
failed to be considered by Congress.

Now, however, the fact of the recommendation
appearing in the annual report, furnished a basis
of action. Mr. Hilgard did not lose a day in set-
ting the ball in motion.

He called upon me immediately, and I told him
of the recommendations in the last two reports of
the superintendent of the observatory. Together
we went to see Admiral Sands, who of course took
the warmest interest in the movement, and ear-
nestly promoted it on the official side. Mr. Hilgard
telegraphed immediately to some leading men of

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 131

science, -who authorized their signatures to a peti-
tion. In this paper attention was called to the
wants of the observatory, as set forth by the super-
intendent, and to the eminent ability of the cele-
brated firm of the Clarks to supply them. The
petition was printed and put into the hands of
Senator Hamlin for presentation to the Senate
only three or four days after the dinner party.
The appropriation measure was formally consid-
ered by the Committee on Naval AfEairs and that
on Appropriations, and was adopted in the Senate
as an amendment to the naval appropriation bill
without opposition. The question then was to get
the amendment concurred in by the House of Re-
presentatives. The session was near its close, and
there was no time to do much work.

Several members of the House Committee on
Appropriations were consulted, and the general
feeling seemed to be favorable to the amendment.
Great, therefore, was our surprise to find the com-
mittee recommending that the amendment be not
concurred in. To prevent a possible misapprehen-
sion, I may remark that the present system of non-
concurring in all amendments to an appropriation
bill, in order to bring the whole subject into con-
ference, had not then been introduced, so that this
action showed a real opposition to the movement.
One of the most curious features of the case is that
the leader in the opposition was said to be Mr.
Washburn, the chairman of the committee, who,
not many years later, foimded the Washburn Ob-

132 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

servatory of the University of Wisconsin. There
is, I believe, no doubt that his munificence in this
direction arose from what he learned about astron-
omy and telescopes in the present case.

It happened, most fortunately, that the joint
committee of conference included Drake of the
Senate and Niblack of the House, both earnestly
in favor of the measure. The committee recom-
mended concurrence, and the clause authorizing
the construction became a law. The price was
limited to $50,000, and a sum of $10,000 was
appropriated for the first payment.

No sooner were the Clarhs consulted than diffi-
culties were found which, for a time, threatened to
complicate matters, and perhaps delay the con-
struction. In the first place, our currency was
then still on a paper basis. Gold was at a pre-
mium of some ten or fifteen per cent., and the
Clarks were unwilling to take the contract on any
but a gold basis. This, of course, the Government
could not do. But the difficulty was obviated
through the action of a second one, which equally
threatened delay. Mr. L. J. McCormick, of reap-
ing-machine fame, had conceived the idea of get-
ting the largest telescope that could be made. He
had commenced negotiations with the firm of Al-
van Clark & Sons before we had moved, and entered
into a contract while the appropriation was stiU
pending in Congress. If the making of one great
telescope was a tedious job, requiring many years
for its completion, how could two be made ?

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 133

I was charged -with the duty of negotiating the
government contract with the Clarks. I found
that the fact of Mr. McCormick's contract being
on a gold basis made them wilKng to accept one
from the Government on a currency basis ; still
they considered that Mr. McCormick had the right
of way in the matter of construction, and refused
to give precedence to our instrument. On mature
consideration, however, the firm reached the conclu-
sion that two instruments could be made almost
simultaneously, and Mr. McCormick very gener-
ously waived any right he might have had to pre-
cedence in the matter.

The question how large an instrument they
would undertake was, of course, one of the first to
arise. Progress in the size of telescopes had to be
made step by step, because it could never be fore-
seen how soon the limit might be met ; and if an
attempt were made to exceed it, the result would
be not only failure for the instrument, but loss of
labor and money by the constructors. The largest
refracting telescope which the Clarks had yet con-
structed was one for the University of Mississippi,
which, on the outbreak of the civil war, had come
into the possession of the Astronomical Society of
Chicago. This would have been the last step,
beyond which the firm would not have been will-
ing to go to any great extent, had it not happened
that, at this very time, a great telescope had been
mounted in England. This was made by Thomas
Cooke & Sons of York, for Mr. R. S. Newall of

134 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Gateshead on Tyne, England. The Clarks could
not, of course, allow themselves to be surpassed or
even equalled by a foreign constructor ; yet they
were averse to going much beyond the Cooke
telescope in size. Twenty-six inches aperture was
the largest they would undertake. I contended as
strongly as I could for a larger telescope than Mr.
McCormick's, but they would agree to nothing of
the sort, — the supposed right of that gentleman
to an instrument of equal size being guarded as
completely as if he had been a party to the nego-
tiations. So the contract was duly made for a
telescope of twenty-six inches clear aperture.

At that time Cooke and Clark were the only two
men who had ever succeeded in making refracting
telescopes of the largest size. But in order to ex-
ercise their skill, an art equally rare and difficult
had to be perfected, that of the glassmaker. Or-
dinary glass, even ordinary optical glass, would not
answer the purpose at all. The two disks, one of
crown glass and the other of flint, must be not
only of perfect transparency, but absolutely homo-
geneous through and through, to avoid inequality
of refraction, and thus cause all rays passing
through them to meet in the same focus. It was
only about the beginning of the century that flint
disks of more than two or three inches diameter
could be made. Even after that, the art was sup-
posed to be a secret in the hands of a Swiss named
Guinand, and his family. Looking over the field,
the Clarks concluded that the only firm that could

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 133

be relied on to furnish the glass was that of Chance
& Co., of Birmingham, England. So, as soon as
the contracts were completed, one of the Clark firm
visited England and arranged with Chance & Co.
to supply the glass for the two telescopes. The
firm failed in a number of trials, but by repeated
efforts finally reached success at the end of a year.
The glasses were received in December, 1871, and
tested in the following month. A year and a half
more was required to get the object glasses into
perfect shape ; then, in the spring or summer of
1873, I visited Cambridge for the purpose of test-
ing the glasses. They were mounted in the yard
of the Clark establishment in a temporary tube, so
arranged that the glass could be directed to any
part of the heavens.

I have had few duties which interested me more
than this. The astronomer, in pursuing his work,
is not often filled with those emotions which the
layman feels when he hears of the wonderful power
of the telescope. Not to say anything so harsh as
that " familiarity breeds contempt," we must admit
that when an operation of any sort becomes a
matter of daily business, the sentiments associated
with it necessarily become dulled. Now, however,
I was filled with the consciousness that I was look-
ing at the stars through the most powerful tele-
scope that had ever been pointed at the heavens,
and wondered what mysteries might be unfolded.
The night was of the finest, and I remember, sweep-
ing at random, I ran upon what seemed to be a

136 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

little cluster of stars, so small and faint that it
could scarcely have been seen in a smaller instru-
ment, yet so distant that the individual stars eluded
even the power of this instrument. What cluster
it might have been it was impossible to determine,
because the telescope had not the circles and other
appliances necessary for fixing the exact location
of an object. I could not help the vain longing
which one must sometimes feel under such circum-
stances, to know what beings might live on planets
belonging to what, from an earthly point of view,
seemed to be a little colony on the border of crea-
tion itself.

In his report dated October 9, 1873, Admiral
Sands reported the telescope as "nearly completed."
The volume of Washington observations showed
that the first serious observations made with it,
those on the satellites of Neptune, were commenced
on November 10 of the same year. Thus, scarcely
more than a month elapsed from the time that the
telescope was reported still incomplete in the shop
of its makers until it was in regular nightly use.

Associated with the early history of the instru-
ment is a chapter of astronomical history which may
not only instruct and amuse the public, but relieve
the embarrassment of some astronomer of a future
generation who, reading the published records, will
wonder what became of an important discovery.
If the faith of the public in the absolute certainty
of all astronomical investigation is thereby impaired,
what I have to say will be in the interest of truth ;

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 137

and I have no fear that our science will not stand
the shock of the revelation. Of our leading as-
tronomical observers of the present day — of such
men as Burnham and Barnard — it may be safely
said that when they see a thing it is there. But
this cannot always be said of every eminent ob-
server, and here is a most striking example of this
fact.

When the telescope was approaching completion
I wrote to the head of one of the greatest European
observatories, possessing one of the best telescopes
of the time, that the first thing I should attempt
with the telescope would be the discovery of the
companion of Procyon. This first magnitude star,
which may be well seen in the winter evenings
above Orion, had been found to move in an exceed-
ingly small orbit, one too small to be detected ex-
cept through the most refined observations of mod-
ern precision. The same thing had been found
in the case of Sirius, and had been traced to the
action of a minute companion revolving around it,
which was discovered by the Clarks a dozen years
before. There could be no doubt that the motion
of Procyon was due to the same cause, but no one
had ever seen the planet that produced it, though
its direction from the star at any time could be
estimated.

Now, it happened that my European friend, as
was very natural, had frequently looked for this
object without seeing it. Whether my letter set
him to looking again, or whether he did not re-

138 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMEK

ceive it until a later day, I do not know. What is
certain is that, in the course of the summer, he
pubHshed the discovery of the long^looked-f or com-
panion, supplemented by an excellent series of ob-
servations upon it, made iu March and April.

Of course I was a little disappointed that the
honor of first findiog this object did not belong
to our own telescope. Still I was naturally very
curious to see it. So, on the very first night on
which the telescope could be used, I sat up until
midnight to take a look at Procyon, not doubting
that, with the greater power of our telescope, it
would be seen at the first glance. To my great
concern, nothing of the sort was visible. But the
night was far from good, the air being somewhat
thick with moisture, which gave objects seen through
it a blurred appearance ; so I had to await a better
night and more favorable conditions. Better nights
came and passed, and still not a trace of the object
could be seen. Supposing that the light of the
bright star might be too dazzling, I cut it off with
a piece of green glass in the focus. Still no com-
panion showed itself. Could it be that our instru-
ment, in a more favorable location, would fail to
show what had been seen with one so much smaller ?
This question I could not answer, but wrote to my
European friend of my unavailing attempts.

He replied expressing his perplexity and surprise
at the occurrence, which was all the greater that
the object had again been seen and measured in
April, 1874. A fine-looking series of observations

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 139

was published, similar to those of the preceding
year. What made the matter all the more certain
was that there was a change in the direction of
the object which corresponded very closely to the
motion as it had been predicted by Auwers. The
latter published a revision of his work, based on
the new observations.

A year later, the parties that had been ob-
serving the transit of Venus returned home. The
head of one of them. Professor C. H. P. Peters of
Clinton, stopped a day or two at Washington. It
happened that a letter from my European friend
arrived at the same time. I found that Peters was
somewhat skeptical as to the reaUty of the object.
Sitting before the fire in my room at the observa-
tory, I read to him and some others extracts from
the letter, which cited much new evidence to show
the reality of the discovery. Not only had several
of his own observers seen the object, but it had
been seen and measured on several different nights
by a certain Professor Blank, with a telescope only
ten or twelve inches aperture.

" What," said Peters, " has Blank seen it ? "

" Yes, so the letter says."

« Then it is n't there ! "

And it really was not there. The maker of the
discovery took it all back, and explained how he
had been deceived. He found that the telescope
through which the observations were made seemed
to show a little companion of the same sort along-
side of every very bright star. Everything was

140 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

explained by this discovery. Even the seeming
motion of the imaginary star during the twelve
months was accounted for by the fact that in 1873
Procyon was much nearer the horizon when the ob-
servations were made than it was the year following.^

There is a sequel to the history, which may cause
its revision by some astronomer not many years
hence. When the great telescope was mounted at
the Lick Observatory, it is understood that Burn-
ham and Barnard, whose eyes are of the keenest,
looked in vain for the companion of Procyon. Yet,
in 1895, it was found with the same instrument by
Schaeberle, and has since been observed with the
great Yerkes telescope, as well as by the observers
at Mount Hamilton, so that the reality of the dis-
covery is beyond a doubt. The explanation of the
failure of Burnham and Barnard to see it is very
simple : the object moves in an eccentric orbit, so
that it is nearer the planet at some points of its
orbit than at others. It was therefore lost in the
rays of the bright star during the years 1887-94.
Is it possible that it could have been far enough
away to be visible in 1873-74 ? I need scarcely
add that this question must be answered in the
negative, yet it may be worthy of consideration,
when the exact orbit of the body is worked out
twenty or thirty years hence.

In my work with the telescope I had a more

1 In justice to Mr. filank, I must say that there seems to have been
some misunderstanding as to his observations. What he had really
seen and observed was a star long well known, much more distant
from Procyon than the companion in question.

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 141

definite end in view than merely the possession of a
great instrument. The work of reconstructing the
tables of the planets, which I had long before
mapped out as the greatest one in which I should en-
gage, required as exact a knowledge as could be ob-
tained of the masses of aU the planets. In the case
of Uranus and Neptune, the two outer planets, this
knowledge could best be obtained by observations
on their sateUites. To the latter my attention was
therefore directed. In the case of Neptune, which
has only one satelHte yet revealed to human vision,
and that one so close to the planet that the obser-
vations are necessarily affected by some uncertainty,
it was very desirable that a more distant one should
be found if it existed. I therefore during the sum-
mer and autumn of 1874 made most careful search
under the most favorable conditions. But no sec-
ond satellite was found. I was not surprised to
learn that the observers with the great Lick tele-
scope were equally unsuccessful. My observations
with the instrument during two years were worked
up and pubhshed, and I turned the instrument over
to Professor Hall in 1875.

The discovery of the sateUites of Mars was made
two years later, in August, 1877. As no state-
ment that I took any interest in the discovery has
ever been made in any official publication, I ven-
ture, with the discoverer's permission, to mention
the part that I took in verifying it.

One morning Professor Hall confidentially showed
me his first observations of an object near Mars,

142 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

and asked me what I thought of them. I remarked,
" Why, that looks very much like a satellite."

Yet he seemed very incredulous on the subject ;
so incredulous that I feared he might make no fur-
ther attempt to see the object. I afterward learned,
however, that this was entirely a misapprehension
on my part. He had been making a careful search
for some time, and had no intention of abandoning
it until the matter was cleared up one way or the
other.

The possibility of the object being an asteroid
suggested itself. I volunteered to test this ques-
tion by looking at the ephemerides of all the small
planets in the neighborhood of Mars. A very little
searching disproved the possibihty of the object
belonging to this class. One such object was in
the neighborhood, but its motion was incompatible
with the measures.

Then I remarked that, if the object were really
a satelhte, the measures already made upon it, and
the approximately known mass of the planet, would
enable the motion of the satellite to be determined
for a day or two. Thus I foimd that on that night
the satellite would be hidden in the early evening
by the planet, but would emerge after midnight.
I therefore suggested to Professor Hall that, if it
was not seen in the early evening, he should wait
until after midnight. The result was in accord-
ance with the prediction, — the satellite was not
visible in the early evening, but came out after
midnight. No further doubt was possible, and the

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 143

discovery was published. The labor of searching
and observing was so exhausting that Professor
HaU let me compute the preliminary orbit of the
satellites from his early observations.

My calcidations and suggestions lost an impor-
tance they might otherwise have claimed, for the
reason that several clear nights followed. Had
cloudy weather intervened, a knowledge of when
to look for the object might have greatly facilitated
its recognition.

It is stiQ an open question, perhaps, whether a
great refracting telescope will last unimpaired for
an indefinite length of time. I am not aware that
the twin instruments of Harvard and Pulkowa,
mounted in 1843, have suffered from age, nor am
I aware that any of Alvan Clark's instruments are
less perfect to-day than when they left the hands
of their makers. But not long after the discovery
of the satellites of Mars, doubts began to spread
in some quarters as to whether the great Washing-
ton telescope had not suffered deterioration. These
doubts were strengthened in the following way :
When hundreds of curious objects were being dis-
covered in the heavens here and there, observers
with small instruments naturally sought to find
them. The result was several discoveries belong-
ing to the same class as that of the satellite of
Procyon. They were found with very insignificant
instruments, but could not be seen in the large
ones. Professor Hall published a letter in a Eu-
ropean journal, remarking upon the curious fact

144 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

that several objects were being discovered witb very
small instruments, which were invisible in the Wash-
ington telescope. This met the eye of Professor
Wolf, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, as well
as astronomer at the Paris Observatory. In a pub-
lic lecture, which he delivered shortly afterward,
he lamented the fact that the deterioration of the
Washington telescope had gone so far as that, and
quoted Professor Hall as his authority.

The success of the Washington telescope excited
such interest the world over as to give a new im-
petus to the construction of such instruments. Its
glass showed not the shghtest drawbacks from its
great size. It had been feared that, after a cer-
tain hmit, the shght bending of the glass under its
own weight would be injurious to its performance.
Nothing of the kind being seen, the C larks were
quite ready to undertake much larger instruments.
A 30-inch telescope for the Pulkova Observatory
in Bussia, the 36-inch telescope of the Lick Obser-
vatory in California, and, finally, the 40-inch of the
Yerkes Observatory in Chicago, were the outcome
of the movement.

Of most interest to us in the present connec-
tion is the history of the 30-inch telescope of the
Pulkova Observatory, the object glass of which
was made by Alvan Clark & Sons. It was, I think,
sometime in 1878 that I received a letter from
Otto Struve,^ director of the Pulkova Observatory,

^ Otto Struve was a brother of the very popular Rnssian minis-
ter to Washington during the years 1882-92. He retired from the

GREAT TELESCOPES AST) THEIR WORK 145

stating that he was arranging with his government
for a grant of money to build one of the largest
refracting telescopes. In answering him I called
his attention to the ability of Alvan Clark & Sons
to make at least the object glass, the most deUcate
and difficult part of the instrument. The result
was that, after fruitless negotiations with European
artists, Struve himself came to America in the sum-
mer of 1879 to see what the American firm could
do. He first went to Washington and carefully ex-
amined the telescope there. Then he proceeded to
Cambridge and visited the workshop of the Clarks.
He expressed some surprise at its modest dimen-
sions and fittings generally, but was so well pleased
with what he saw that he decided to award them
the contract for making the object glass. He was
the guest of the Pickerings at the Cambridge Ob-
servatory, and invited me thither from where I was
summering on the coast of Massachusetts to assist
in negotiating the contract.

He requested that, for simpHcity in conference,
the preliminary terms should be made with but a
single member of the firm to talk with. George B.
Clark, the eldest member, was sent up to represent
the firm. I was asked to take part in the negotia-
tions as a mutual friend of both parties, and sug-
gested the main conditions of the contract. A

direction of the Pulkowa Observatory about 1894. The official his-
tory of his negotiations and other proceedings for the construction
of the telescope will be found in a work published in 1889 in honor
of the jubilee of the observatory.

146 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

summary of these will be found in the pubhcation
to which I have already referred.

There was one provision the outcome of which
was characteristic of Alvan Clark & Sons. Struve,
in testing some object glasses which they had con-
structed and placed in their temporary tube, found
so great physical exertion necessary in pointing so
rough an instrument at any heavenly body with
sufficient exactness, that he could not form a satis-
factory opinion of the object glass. As he was to
come over again when the glass was done, in order
to test it preliminary to acceptance, he was deter-
mined that no such difficulty should arise. He
therefore made a special provision that flOOO extra,
to be repaid by him, should be expended in mak-
ing a rough equatorial mounting in which he could
test the instrument. George Clark demurred to
this, on the ground that such a mounting as was
necessary for this purpose could not possibly cost
so much money. But Struve persistently main-
tained that one to cost $1000 should be made.
The other party had to consent, but failed to carry
out this provision. The tube was, indeed, made
large enough to test not only Struve's glass but the
larger one of the Lick Observatory, which, though
not yet commenced, was expected to be ready not
long afterward. Yet, notwithstanding this increase
of size, I think the extra cost turned out to be
much less than $1000, and the mounting was so
rough that when Struve came over in 1883 to test
the glass, he suffered much physical inconvenience

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 147

and met, if my memory serves me aright, -with a
slight accident, in his efforts to use the rough in-
strument.

In points like this I do not believe that another
such business firm as that of the Clarks ever ex-
isted in this country or any other. Here is an
example. Shortly before the time of Struve's visit,
I had arranged with them for the construction of
a refined and comphcated piece of apparatus to
measure the velocity of light. As this apparatus
was quite new in nearly all its details, it was impos-
sible to estimate in advance what it might cost ; so,
of course, they desired that payment for it should
be arranged on actual cost after the work was
done. I assured them that the government would
not enter into a contract on such terms. There
must be some maximum or fixed price. This they
fixed at $2500. I then arranged with them that
this should be taken as a maximum and that, if it
was found to cost less, they should accept actual
cost. The contract was arranged on this basis.
There were several extras, including two most deli-
cate reflecting mirrors which would look flat to the
eye, but were surfaces of a sphere of perhaps four
miles diameter. The entire cost of the apparatus,
as figured up by them after it was done, with these
additions, was less than $1500, or about foriy per
cent, below the contract limit.

No set of men were ever so averse to advertising
themselves. If anybody, in any part of the world,
wanted them to make a telescope, he must write to

148 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

them to know the price, etc. They could never
be induced to prepare anything in the form of a
price catalogue of the instruments they were pre-
pared to furnish. The history of their early efEorts
and the indifference of our scientific public to their
skill forms a mortifying chapter in our history of
the middle of the century. When Mr. Clark had
finished his first telescope, a small one of four
inches aperture, which was, I have no reason to
doubt, the best that human art could make, he
took it to the Cambridge Observatory to be tested
by one of the astronomers. The latter called his
attention to a little tail which the glass showed as
an appendage of a star, and which was, of course,
non-existent. It was attributed to a defect in the
glass, which was therefore considered a failure.
Mr. Clark was quite sure that the tail was not
shown when he had previously used the glass, but
he could not account for it at the time. He after-
wards traced it to the warm air collecting in the
upper part of the tube and producing an irregular
refraction of the light. When this cause was
corrected the defect disappeared. But he got no
further encouragement at home to pursue his work.
The first recognition of his genius came from Eng-
land, the agent being Kev. W. R. Dawes, an en-
thusiastic observer of double stars, who was greatly
interested in having the best of telescopes. Mr.
Clark wrote him a letter describing a number of
objects which he had seen with telescopes of his
own make. From this description Mr. Dawes saw

GREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK 149

that the instruments must be of great excellence,
and the outcome of the matter was that he ordered
one or more telescopes from the American maker.
Not until then were the abihties of the latter recog-
nized in his own country.

I have often speculated as to what the result
might have been had Mr. Clark been a more enter-
prising man. If, when he first found himself able
to make a large telescope, he had come to Wash-
ington, got permission to mount his instrument in
the grounds of the capitol, showed it to members
of Congress, and asked for legislation to promote
this new industry, and, when he got it, advertised
himself and his work in every way he could, would
the firm which he founded have been so little known
after the death of its members, as it now unhappily
is ? This is, perhaps, a rather academic question,
yet not an unprofitable one to consider.

In recent years the firm was engaged only to
make object glasses of telescopes, because the only
mountings they could be induced to make were
too rude to satisfy astronomers. The palm in this
branch of the work went to the firm of Warner &
Swasey, whose mounting of the great Yerkes tele-
scope of the University of Chicago is the last word
of art in this direction.

During the period when the reputation of the
Cambridge family was at its zenith, I was slow to
beheve that any other artist could come up to their
standard. My impression was strengthened by a
curious circumstance. During a visit to the Stras-

150 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

burg Observatory in 1883 I was given permission
to look through its great telescope, which was
made by a renowned German artist. I was sur-
prised to find the object glass affected by so serious
a defect that it could not be expected to do any
work of the first class. One could only wonder
that European art was so backward. But, several
years afterward, the astronomers discovered that,
in putting the glasses together after being cleaned,
somebody had placed one of them in the wrong
position, the surface which should have been turned
toward the star being now turned toward the ob-
server. When the glass was simply turned over so
as to have the right face outward, the defect dis-
appeared.

VI

THE TRANSITS OF VEinJS

It was long supposed that transits of Venus over
the sun's disk afforded the only accurate method
of determining the distance of the sun, one of
the fundamental data of astronomy. Unfortu-
nately, these phenomena are of the rarest. They
come in pairs, with an interval of eight years be-
tween the transits of a pair. A pair occurred in
1761 and 1769, and again in 1874 and 1882.
Now the whole of the twentieth century wiU pass
without another recurrence of the phenomenon.
Not until the years 2004 and 2012 will our poster-
ity have the opportunity of witnessing it.

Much interesting history is associated with the
adventures of the astronomers who took part in
the expeditions to observe the transits of 1761 and
1769. In the almost chronic warfare which used
to rage between Prance and England during that
period, neither side was willing to regard as neu-
tral even a scientific expedition sent out by the
other. The French sent one of their astronomers,
Le Gentil, to observe the transit at Pondicherry in
the East Indies. As he was nearing his station,
the presence of the enemy prevented him from mak-
ing port, and he was still at sea on the day of the

152 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

transit. When he at length landed, he detennined
to remain until the transit of 1769, and observe
that. We must not suppose, however, that he
was guilty of the eccentricity of doing this with no
other object in view than that of making the
observation. He found the field open for profit-
able mercantile enterprise, as weU as interesting
for scientific observations and inquiries. The eight
long years passed away, and the morning of June
4, 1769, found him in readiness for his work.
The season had been exceptionally fine. On the
morning of the transit the sun shone in a cloud-
less sky, as it had done for several days previous.
But, alas for all human hopes ! Just before Venus
reached the sun, the clouds gathered, and a storm
burst upon the place. It lasted until the transit
was over, and then cleared away again as if with
the express object of showing the unfortunate as-
tronomer how helpless he was in the hands of the
elements.

The Eoyal Society of England procured a grant
of £800 from King George 11. for expeditions to
observe the transit of 1761.^ With this grant the
Society sent the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne to the island
of St. Helena, and, receiving another grant, it was

' For the incidents connected with the English observations of
this transit, the author is indebted to Vice-Admiral W. H. Smyth's
curions and rare book, Speculum Hartwellianum, London, 1860. It
and other works of the same author may be described as queer
and interesting jumbles of astronomical and other information,
thrown into an interesting form ; and, in the case of the present
work, spread through a finely illustrated quarto volume of nearly
five hundred pages.

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 163

used to dispatch Messrs. Mason and Dixon (those
of our celebrated " line ") to Bencoolen. The
admiralty also supplied a ship for conveying the
observers to their respective destinations. Maske-
lyne, however, would not avail himself of this con-
veyance, but made his voyage on a private vessel.
Cloudy weather prevented his observations of the
transit, but this did not prevent his expedition from
leaving for posterity an interesting statement of
the necessaries of an astronomer of that time. His
itemized account of personal expenses was as fol-
lows : —

One year's board at St. Helena . . £109 10s. Od.

Liqaors at 5s. per day .

Washing at 9d. per day

Other expenses ....

Liquors on board ship for six months

£291 16s. 3d.

Seven hundred dollars was the total cost of
liquors during the eighteen months of his absence-
Admiral Smyth concludes that Maskelyne " was not
quite what is now ycleped a teetotaler." He was
subsequently Astronomer Royal of England for
nearly half a century, but his pubHshed observa-
tions give no indication of the cost of the drinks
necessary to their production.

Mason and Dixon's expedition met with a mis-
hap at the start. They had only got fairly into
the English Channel when their ship fell in with a
French frigate of superior force. An action ensued
in which the English crew lost eleven killed and

91

5

13

13

9

27

7

6

50

154 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

thirty-eight wounded. The Frenchman was driven
off, but the victorious vessel had to return to Plym-
outh for repairs. This kind of a scientific expedi-
tion was more than the astronomers had bargained
for, and they wrote from Plymouth to the Royal
Society, describing their misfortune and resign-
ing their mission. But the Council of the Society
speedily let them know that they were unmoved by
the misfortunes of their scientific missionaries, and
pointed out to them in caustic terms that, hav-
ing solemnly undertaken the expedition, and re-
ceived money on accoimt of it, their failure to
proceed on the voyage would be a reproach to the
nation in general, and to the Royal Society in par-
ticular. It would also bring an indelible scandal
upon their character, and probably end in their
utter ruin. They were assured that if they per^
sisted in the refusal, they would be treated with
the most inflexible resentment, aild prosecuted
with the utmost severity of the law.

Under such threats the unfortunate men could
do nothing but accept the situation and sail again
after their frigate had been refitted. When they
got as far as the Cape of Good Hope, it was found
very doubtful whether they would reach their des-
tination in time for the transit ; so, to make sure
of some result from their mission, they made their
observations at the Cape.

One of the interesting scraps of history con-
nected with the transit of 1769 concerns the ob-
servations of Father Maximilian Hell, S. J., the

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 155

leading astronomer of Vienna. He observed the
transit at Wardhus, a point near the northern
extremity of Norway, where the sun did not set at
the season of the transit. Owing to the peculiar
circumstances under which the transit was observed,
— the ingress of the planet occurring two or three
hours before the sun approached the northern hori-
zon, and the end of the transit about as long
afterward, — this station was the most favorable
one on the globe. Hell, with two or three com-
panions, one of them named Sajnovics, went on his
mission to this isolated place under the auspices of
the king of Denmark. The day was cloudless and
the observations were made with entire success.
He returned to Copenhagen, where he passed sev-
eral months in preparing for the press a complete
account of his expedition and the astronomical
observations made at the station.

Astronomers were impatient to have the results
for the distance of the sun worked out as soon as
possible. Owing to the importance of Hell's ob-
servations, they were eagerly looked for. But he
at first refused to make them known, on the groimd
that, having been made under the auspices of the
king of Denmark, they ought not to be made
known in advance of their official publication by
the Danish Academy of Sciences. This reason,
however, did not commend itself to the impatient
astronomers; and suspicions were aroused that
something besides official formalities was behind
the delay. It was hinted that Hell was waiting

156 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

for the observations made at other stations in order
that he might so manipulate his own that they
■would fit in with those made elsewhere. Reports
were even circulated that he had not seen the tran-
sit at all, owing to cloudy weather, and that he
was manufacturing observations in Copenhagen.
The book was, however, sent to the printer quite
promptly, and the insinuations against its author
remained a mere suspicion for more than sixty
years. Then, about 1833, a little booh was pub-
Ushed on the subject by Littrow, Director of the
Vienna Observatory, which excited much attention.
Father Hell's original journal had been conveyed
to Vienna on his return, and was still on deposit
at the Austrian National Observatory. Littrow
examined it and found, as he supposed, that the
suspicions of alterations in observations were well
founded ; more especially that the originals of the
all-important figures which recorded the critical
moment of " contact " had been scraped out of the
paper, and new ones inserted in their places. The
same was said to be the case with many other im-
portant observations in the journal, and the conclu-
sion to which his seemingly careful examination led
was that no rehance could be placed on the genu-
ineness of Hell's work. The doubts thus raised
were not dispelled until another half-century had
elapsed.

In 1883 I paid a visit to Vienna for the purpose
of examining the great telescope which had just
been mounted in the observatory there by Grubb,

THE TRANSITS OP VENUS 157

of Dublin. The weather was so unfavorable that
it was necessary to remain two weeks, waiting for
an opportunity to see the stars. One evening I
visited the theatre to see Edwin Booth, in his cele-
brated tour over the Continent, play King Lear
to the applauding Viennese. But evening amuse-
ments cannot be utilized to kill time during the
day. Among the tasks I had projected was that
of rediscussing all the observations made on the
transits of Venus which had occurred in 1761 and
1769, by the light of modern science. As I have
already remarked, Hell's observations were among
the most important made, if they were only gen-
uine. So, during my almost daily visits to the
observatory, I asked permission of Director Weiss
to study Hell's manuscript.

At first the task of discovering anything which
would lead to a positive decision on one side or
the other seemed hopeless. To a cursory glance,
the descriptions given by littrow seemed to cover
the ground so completely that no future student
could turn his doubt into certainty. But when
one looks leisurely at an interesting object, day
after day, he continually sees more and more.
Thus it was in the present case. One of the first
things to strike me as curious was that many of
the alleged alterations had been made before the
ink got dry. When the writer made a mistake,
he had rubbed it out with his finger, and made a
new entry.

The all-important point was a certain suspicious

158 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

record -which Littrow affirmed had been scraped
out so that the new insertion could be made.
As I studied these doubtful figures, day by day,
light continually increased. Evidently the heav-
ily written figures, which were legible, had been
written over some other figures which were con-
cealed beneath them, and were, of course, com-
pletely illegible, though portions of them pro-
truded here and there outside of the heavy figures.
Then I began to doubt whether the paper had
been scraped at all. To settle the question, I found
a darkened room, into which the sun's rays could
be admitted through an opening in the shutter,
and held the paper in the sunlight in such a way
that the only light which fell on it barely grazed
the surface of the paper. Examining the sheet
with a magnifying glass, I was able to see the
original texture of the surface with all its hills
and hoUows. A single glance sufficed to show
conclusively that no eraser had ever passed over
the surface, which had remained untouched.

The true state of the case seemed to me almost
beyond doubt. It frequently happened that the ink
did not run freely from the pen, so that the words
had sometimes to be written over again. When
Hell first wrote down the little figures on which,
as he might well suppose, future generations would
have to base a very important astronomical ele-
ment, he saw that they were not written with a dis-
tinctness corresponding to their importance. So
he wrote them over again with the hand, and in the

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 159

spirit of a man who was determined to leave no
doubt on the subject, little weening that the act
would give rise to a doubt which would endure for
a century.

This, although the most important case of sup-
posed alteration, was by no means the only one.
Yet, to my eyes, all the seeming corrections in
the journal were of the most innocent and com-
monplace kind, — such as any one may make in
writing.

Then I began to compare the manuscript, page
after page, with Littrow's priuted description. It
struck me as very curious that where the manu-
script had been merely retouched with ink which
was obviously the same as that used in the original
writing, but looked a little darker than the origi-
nal, Littrow described the ink as of a different
color. In contrast with this, there was an impor-
tant interlineation, which was evidently made with
a different kind of ink, one that had almost a blue
tinge by comparison ; but in the description he
makes no mention of this plain difference. I
thought this so curious that I wrote in my notes as
follows : —

" That Littrow, in arraying his proofs of Hell's
forgery, should have failed to dweU upon the ob-
vious difference between this ink and that with
which the alterations were made leads me to sus-
pect a defect in his sense of color."

Then it occurred to me to inquire whether, per-
haps, such could have been the case. So I asked

160 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Director Weiss whether anything was known as to
the normal character of Littrow's power of distin-
guishing colors. His answer was prompt and de-
cisive. " Oh, yes, Littrow was color bUnd to red.
He could not distinguish between the color of Al-
debaran and that of the whitest star." No further
research was necessary. For half a century the
astronomical world had based an impression on
the innocent but mistaken evidence of a color-blind
man respecting the tints of ink in a manuscript.

About the middle of the nineteenth century other
methods of measuring the sun's distance began to
be developed which, it was quite possible, mighf
prove as good as the observation in question. But
the relative value of these methods and of transits
of Venus was a subject on which little light could
be thrown ; and the rarity of the latter phenomena
naturally excited universal interest, both among
the astronomers and among the pubhc. For the
purpose in question it was necessary to send expe-
ditions to different and distant parts of the globe,
because the result had to depend upon the times of
the phases, as seen from widely separated stations.

In 1869 the question what stations should be oc-
cupied and what observations should be made was
becoming the subject of discussion in Europe, and
especially in England. But our country was still
silent on the subject. The result of continued
silence was not hard to foresee. Congress would, at
the last moment, make a munificent appropriation
for sending out parties to observe the transit. The

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 161

plans and instruments would be made in a hurry,
and the parties packed off without any well-consid-
ered ideas of what they were to do ; and the whole
thing would end in failure so far as results of any
great scientific value were concerned.

I commenced the discussion by a little paper on
the subject in the " American Journal of Science, "
but there was no one to follow it up. So, at the
spring meeting of the National Academy of Sciences,
in 1870, I introduced a resolution for the appoint-
ment of a committee to consider the subject and
report upon the observations which should be made.
This resolution was adopted, and a few days aftei^
ward Professor Henry invited me to call at his
office in the evening to discuss with himself and
Professor Peirce, then superintendent of the Coast
Survey, the composition of the committee.

At the conference I began by suggesting Pro-
fessor Peirce himself for chairman. Naturally this
met with no opposition ; then I waited for the
others to go on. But they seemed determined to
throw the whole onus of the matter on me. This
was the more embarrassing, because I beheve that,
in parliamentary law and custom, the mover of
a resolution of this sort has a prescribed right to
be chairman of the committee which he proposes
shall be appointed. If not chairman, it would seem
that he ought at any rate to be a member. But
I was determined not to suggest myself in any
way, so I went on and suggested Admiral Davis.
This nomination was, of course, accepted without

162 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

hesitation. Then I remarked that the statutes of
the academy permitted of persons who were not
members being invited to serve on a committee,
and as the Naval Observatory would naturally take
a leading part in such observations as were to be
made, I suggested that its superintendent, Ad-
miral Sands, should be invited to serve as a mem-
ber of the committee. " There," said Peirce, " we
now have three names. Committees of three are
always the most efficient. Why go farther ? "

I suggested that the committee should have on
it some one practiced in astronomical observation,
but he deemed this entirely unnecessary, and so
the committee of three was formed. I did not deem
it advisable to make any opposition at the time, be-
cause it was easy to foresee what the result would
be.

During the summer nothing was heard of the
committee, and in the autumn I made my first trip
to Europe. On my return, in May, 1871, I found
that the committee had never even held a meeting,
and that it had been enlarged by the addition of a
number of astronomers, among them myself. But,
before it went seriously to work, it was superseded
by another organization, to be described presently.

At that time astronomical photography was in
its infancy. Enough had been done by Eutherfurd
to show that it might be made a valuable adjunct
to astronomical investigation. Might we not then
photograph Venus on the sun's disk, and by mea-
surements of the plates obtain the desired result,

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 163

perhaps better than it could be obtained by any
hind of eye observation ? This question had al-
ready suggested itself to Professor Winlock, who,
at the Cambridge Observatory, had designed an
instrument for taking the photographs. It con-
sisted of a fixed horizontal telescope, into which
the rays of the sun were to be thrown by a re-
flector. This kind of an instrument had its origin
in France, but it was first practically applied to
photographing the sun in this country. As what-
ever observations were to be made would have to
be done at governmental expense, an appropriation
of two thousand dollars was obtained from Congress
for the expense of some preliminary instruments
and investigations.

Admiral Sands, superintendent of the observa-
tory, now took an active part in the official prepa-
rations. It was suggested to him, on the part of
the academy committee, that it would be well to
join hands with other organizations, so as to have
the whole affair carried on with unity and harmony.
To this he assented. The result was a provision
that these and all other preparations for observing
the transit of Venus should be made under the
direction of a commission to be composed of the
superintendent of the Naval Observatory, the super-
intendent of the United States Coast Survey, the
president of the National Academy of Sciences, and
two professors of mathematics attached to the Na-
val Observatory. Under this provision the commis-
sion was constituted as follows : Commodore B. F.

164 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Sands, U. S. N., Professor Benjamin Peirce, Pro-
fessor Joseph Henry, Professor Simon Newcomb,
Professor William Harkness.

The academy committee now surrendered its func-
tions to the commission, and the preparations were
left entirely in the hands of the latter.

So far as scientific operations were concerned,
the views of the commission were harmonious
through the whole of their deliberations. It was
agreed from the beginning that the photographic
method offered the greatest promise of success.
But how, with what sort of instruments, and on
what plan, must the photographs be taken ? Euro-
peans had already begun to consider this question,
and for the most part had decided on using pho-
tographic telescopes having no distinctive feature
specially designed for the transit. In fact, one
might almost say that the usual observations with
the eye were to be made on the photograph instead
of on the actual sun. The American commission-
ers were of opinion that this would lead to no-
thing but failure, and that some new system must
be devised.

The result was a series of experiments and trials
with Professor Winlock's instrument at the Cam-
bridge Observatory. The outcome of the matter
was the adoption of his plan, with three most im-
portant additions, which I shall mention, because
they may possibly yet be adopted with success in
other branches of exact astronomy if this telescope
is used, as it seems likely it may be.

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 166

The first feature was that the photographic tel-
escope should be mounted exactly in the meridian,
and that its direction should be tested by having
the transit instrument mounted in front of it, in
the same line "with it. In this way the axis of the
telescope was a horizontal north and south Hue.

The next feature was that, immediately in front
of the photographic plate, in fact as nearly in con-
tact with it as possible without touching it, a plumb
line of which the thread was a very fine silver wire
should be suspended, the bob of which passed down
below, and was immersed in a vessel of water to pre-
vent vibration. In this way the direction of the
north and south line on the plate admitted of be-
ing calculated with the greatest exactness, and the
plumb fine being photographed across the disk of
the sun, the position angle could be measured with
the same precision that any other measure could be
made.

The third feature was that the distance betweeii
the photographic plate and the object glass of the
telescope should be measured by a long iron rod
which was kept in position above the line of sight
of the telescope itselE. This afforded the means
of determining to what angle a given measure on
the plate would correspond. The whole arrange-
ment would enable the position of the centre of
Venus with respect to the centre of the sun to be
determined by purely geometric methods. One
reason for relying entirely on this was that the
diameter of the sun, as photographed, would be

166 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

greater the greater the intensity of the photo-
graphic impression, so that no rehance could he
placed upon its uniformity.

Ours were the only parties whose photographic
apparatus was fitted up in this way. The French
used a similar system, but without the essentials of
the plumb line and the measurement of the length
of the telescope. The English and Germans used
ordinary telescopes for the purpose.

One of the earliest works of the commission was
the preparation and publication of several papers,
which were pubHshed under the general title, " Pa-
pers relating to the Transit of Venus in 1874."
The first of these papers was a discussion of our
proposed plan of photographing, in which the dif-
ficulties of the problem, and the best way of sur-
mounting them, were set forth. The next, called
Part II., related to the circumstances of the transit,
and was therefore entirely technical. Part III. re-
lated to the corrections of Hansen's table of the
moon, and was published as a paper relating to the
transit of Venus, because these corrections were
essential in determining the longitudes of the sta-
tions by observations of the moon.

In England the preparations were left mostly
in the hands of Professor Airy, Astronomer Royal,
and, I believe. Captain Tupman, who at least took
a leading part in the observations and their sub-
sequent reduction. In France, Germany, and Rus-
sia, commissions were appointed to take charge of
the work and plan the observations.

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 167

As cooperation among the parties from different
countries would be generally helpful, I accepted an
invitation to attend a meeting of the German com-
mission, to be held at Hanover in August, 1873.
Hansen was president of the commission, while
Auwers was its executive officer. One of my main
objects was to point out the impossibiHty of ob-
taining any valuable result by the system of pho-
tographing which had been proposed, but I was
informed, in reply, that the preparations had ad-
vanced too far to admit of starting on a new plan
and putting it in operation.

From the beginning of our preparations it began
to be a question of getting from Congress the large
appropriations necessary for sending out the expe-
ditions and fitting them up with instruments. The
sum of $50,000 was wanted for instruments and
outfit. Hon. James A. Garfield was then chairman
of the committee on appropriations. His principles
and methods of arranging appropriations for the
government were, in some features, so different
from those generally in vogue that it will be of
interest to describe them.

First of all, Garfield was rigidly economical in
grants of money. This characteristic of a chair-
man of a committee on appropriations was almost a
necessary one. But he possessed it in a different
way from any other chairman before or since. The
method of the " watch dogs of the treasury " who
sometimes held this position was to grant most
of the objects asked for, but to cut down the esti-

168 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

mated amounts by one fourth or one third. This
was a very easy method, and one well fitted to im-
press the pubhc, but it was one that the executive
officers of the government found no difficulty in
evading, by the very simple process of increasing
their estimate so as to allow for the prospective
reduction.^

Garfield compared this system to ordering cloth
for a coat, but economizing by reducing the quan-
tity put into it. If a new proposition came before
him, the question was whether it was advisable
for the government to entertain it at all. He had
to be thoroughly convinced before this would be
done. If the question was decided favorably all
the funds necessary for the project were voted.

When the proposition for the transit of Venus
came before him, he proceeded in a manner which I
never heard of the chairman of an appropriation
committee adopting before or since. Instead of
caUing upon those who made the proposition to
appear formally before the committee, he asked
me to dinner with his family, where we could talk
the matter over. One other guest was present,
Judge Black of Pennsylvania. He was a dyed-in-

' " The War Department got ahead of us in the matter of fur-
niture," said an officer of the Navy Department to me long after-
wards, when the furniture for the new department building was
being obtained. " They knew enough to ask for a third more than
they wanted ; we reduced our estimate to the lowest point. Both
estimates were reduced one third by the Appropriations Committee.
The result is that they have all the f ornitoie they want, while we
are greatly pinched."

THE TRANSITS OP VENUS 169

the-wool Democrat, wielding as caustic a pen as
was ever dipped into ink, but was, withal, a firm
personal friend and admirer of Garfield. As may
readily be supposed, the transit of Venus did not
occupy much time at the table. I should not have
been an enthusiastic advocate of the case against
opposition, in any case, because my hopes of
measuring the sun's distance satisfactorily by that
method were not at all sanguine. My main inter-
est lay in the fact that, apart from this, the transit
would afford valuable astronomical data for the
life work which I had mainly in view. So the
main basis of my argument was that other nations
were going to send out parties ; that we should
undoubtedly do the same, and that they must be
equipped and organized in the best way.

It appears that Judge Black was an absent-
minded man, as any man engaged in thought on
very great subjects, whether of science, jurispru-
dence, or politics, has the right to be. Garfield
asked him whether it was true that, on one occa-
sion, when preparing an argument, and walking
up and down the room, his hat chanced to drop on
the floor at one end of the room, and was per-
sistently used as a cuspidor untU the argument was
completed. Mr. Black neither affirmed nor denied
the story, but told another which he said was true.
While on his circuit as judge he had, on one
occasion, tried a case of theft in which the prin-
cipal evidence against the accused was the find-
ing of the stolen article in his possession. He

170 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

charged the jury that this fact -^as prima facie evi-
dence that the man was actually the thief. When
through his business and about to leave for home,
he went into a jeweler's shop to purchase some
little trinket for his wife. The jeweler showed
him a number of Kttle articles, but finding none
to suit him, he stepped into his carriage and drove
off. In the course of the day he called on a street
urchin to water his horse. Reaching into his
pocket for a reward, the first thing he got hold of
was a diamond ring which must have been taken
from the shop of the jeweller when he left that
morning. " I wondered," said the judge, " how I
should have come out had I been tried under my
own law."

The outcome of the matter was that the appro-
priations were duly made ; first, in 1872, f 50,000
for instruments, then, the year foUowing, $100,000
for the expeditions. In 1874, f 25,000 more was
appropriated to complete the work and return the
parties to their homes.

The date of the great event was December 8-9,
1874. To have the parties thoroughly drilled in
their work, they were brought together at Wash-
ington in the preceding spring for practice and
rehearsal. In order that the observations to be
made by the eye should not be wholly new, an ap-
paratus representing the transit was mounted on
the top of Winder's building, near the War Depart-
ment, about two thirds of a mile from the observa-
tory. When this was observed through the tele-

THE TRANSITS OP VENUS 171

scope from the roof of the observatory, an artificial
black Venus was seen impinging upon an artificial
sun, and entering upon its disk in the same way
that the actual Venus would be seen. This was
observed over and over until, as was supposed, the
observers had gotten into good practice.

In order to insure the full understanding of
the photographic apparatus, the instruments were
mounted and the parties practiced setting them up
and going through the processes of photograph-
ing the sun. To carry out this arrangement with
success, it was advisable to have an expert in astro-
nomical photography to take charge of the work.
Dr. Henry Draper of New York was invited for
this purpose, and gave his services to the commis-
sion for several weeks.

This transit was not visible in the United States.
It did not begin until after the sun had set in San
Francisco, and it was over before the rising sun
next morning had reached western Europe. All
the parties had therefore to be sent to the other
side of the globe. Three northern stations were
occupied, — in China, Japan, and Siberia ; and five
southern ones, at various points on the islands of
the Pacific and Indian oceans. This unequal divi-
sion was suggested by the fact that the chances
of fair weather were much less in the southern
hemisphere than in the northern.

The southern parties were taken to their desti-
nations in the U^ S. S. Swatara, Captain Ralph
Chandler, U. S. N., commanding. In astronomical

172 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

observations all work is at the mercy of the ele-
ments. Clear weather was, of course, a necessity
to success at any station. In the present case the
weather was on the whole unpropitious. While
there was not a complete failure at any one station,
the number or value of the observations was more
or less impaired at all. Where the sij was nearly
cloudless, the air was thick and hazy. This was
especially the case at Nagasaki and Pekin, where
from meteorological observations which the com-
mission had collected through our consuls, the best
of weather was confidently expected. What made
this result more tantalizing was that the very pains
we had taken to collect the data proved, by chance,
to have made the choice worse. For some time
it was deliberated whether the Japanese station
should be in Nagasaki or Yokohama. Consulta-
tion with the best authorities and a study of the
records showed that, while Yokohama was a favor-
able spot, thie chances were somewhat better at
Nagasaki. So to Nagasaki the party was sent.
But when the transit came, while the sky was of
the best at Yokohama, it was far from being so at
Nagasaki.

Something of the same sort occurred at the
most stormy of all the southern stations, that at
Kerguelen Island. The British expeditions had,
in the beginning, selected a station on this island
known as Christmas Harbor. We learned that a
firm of New London, Conn., had a whaling station
on the island. It was therefore applied to to know

THE TRANSITS OP VENUS 173

what the weather chances were at various points
in the island. Information was obtained from
their men, and it was thus found that Molloy Point,
bad though the weather there was, afforded better
chances than Christmas Harbor ; so it was chosen.
But this was not all ; the British parties, either in
consequence of the information we had acquired,
or through what was learned from the voyage of
the Challenger, estabUshed their principal station
near ours. But it happened that the day at Christ-
mas Harbor was excellent, while the observations
were greatly interfered with by passing clouds at
Molloy Point.

After the return of the parties sent out by the
various nations, it did not take long for the astro-
nomers to find that the result was disappointing,
so far, at least, as the determination of the sun's
distance was concerned. It became quite clear
that this important element could be better mea-
sured by determining the velocity of light and the
time which it took to reach us from the sun than
it could by any transit of Venus. It was there-
fore a question whether parties should be sent out
to observe the transit of 1882. On this subject
the astronomers of the country at large were con-
sulted. As might have been expected, there was
a large majority in favor of the proposition. The
negative voices were only two in number, those of
Pickering and myself. I took the ground that we
should make ample provisions for observing it at
various stations in our own country, where it would

174 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

now be visible, but that, in view of the certain
failure to get a valuable result for the distance of
the sun by this method, it was not worth while for
us to send parties to distant parts of the world.
I supposed the committee on appropriations might
make careful inquiry into the subject before mak-
ing the appropriation, but a representation of the
case was aU they asked for, and f 10,000 was voted
for improving the instruments and $75,000 for
sending out parties.

Expeditions being thus decided upon, I volun-
teered to take charge of that to the Cape of Good
Hope. The scientific personnel of my party com-
prised an officer of the army engineers, one of the
navy, and a photographer. The former were Lieu-
tenant Thomas L. Casey, Jr., Corps of Engineers,
U. S. A., and Lieutenant J. H. L. Holcombe,
U. S. N. We took a Cunard steamer for Liver-
pool about the middle of September, 1882, and
transported oiu: instruments by rail to Southamp-
ton, there to have them put on the Cape steamship.
At Liverpool I was guilty of a remissness which
might have caused much trouble. Our apparatus
and suppHes, in a large number of boxes, were all
gathered and piled in one place. I sent one of my
assistants to the point to see that it was so collected
that there should be no possibility of mistake in
getting it into the freight car designed to carry it
to Southampton, but did not require him to stay
there and see that aU was put on board. When the
cases reached Southampton it was found that one

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 175

was missing. It was one of the heaviest of the
lot, containing the cast-iron pier on which the
photoheliograph was to be mounted. While it
was possible to replace this by something else, such
a course would have been inconvenient and per-
haps prejudicial. The steamer was about to sail,
but would touch at Plymouth next day. Only one
resource was possible. I telegraphed the mistake
to Liverpool and asked that the missing box be
sent immediately by express to Plymouth. We had
the satisfaction of seeing it come on board "with the
mail just as the steamer was about to set sail.

We touched first at Madeira, and then at Ascen-
sion Island, the latter during the night. One of
the odd things in nomenclature is that this island, a
British naval station, was not called such officially,
but was a " tender to Her Majesty's ship Flora,"
I believe. It had become astronomically famous a
few years before by Gill's observations of the posi-
tion of Mars to determine the solar parallax.

We touched six hours at St. Helena, enough to
see the place, but scarcely enough to make a visit
to the residence of Napoleon, even had we desired
to see it. The little town is beautifully situated,
and the rocks around are very imposing. My most
vivid recollection is, however, of running down
from the top of a rock some six hundred or eight
hundred feet high, by a steep flight of steps, with-
out stopping, or rather of the consequences of this
imprudent gymnastic performance. I could scarcely
move for the next three days.

176 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Cape Town was then suffering from an epi-
demic of smallpox, mostly confined to the Malay
population, but causing some disagreeable results
to travelers. Our Une of ships did not terminate
their voyage at the Cape, but proceeded thence to
other African ports east of the Cape. Here a
rigid quarantine had been established, and it was
necessary that the ships touching at the Cape of
Good Hope should have had no communication
with the shore. Thus it happened that we found,
lying in the harbor, the ship of our line which
had preceded us, waiting to get supphes from
us, in order that it might proceed on its voyage.
Looking at a row-boat after we had cast anchor,
we were deUghted to see two faces which I well
knew : those of David Gill, astronomer of the Cape
Observatory, and Dr. W. L. Elkin, now director
of the Yale Observatory. The latter had gone to
the Cape as a volunteer observer with GUI, their
work being directed mostly to parallaxes of stars
too far south to be well observed in our latitude.
Our friends were not, however, even allowed to
approach the ship, for fear of the smallpox, the
idea appearing to be that the latter might be com-
municated by a sort of electric conduction, if the
boat and the ship were allowed to come into con-
tact, so we had to be put ashore without their aid.

We selected as our station the little town of
Wellington, some forty nules northeast of Cape
Town. The weather chances were excellent any-
where, but here they were even better than at the

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 177

Cape. The most interesting feature of the place
was what we might call an American young ladies'
school. The Dutch inhabitants of South Africa
are imbued with admiration of our institutions,
and one of their dreams is said to be a United
States of South Africa modeled after our own re-
public. Desiring to give their daughters the best
education possible, they secured the services of
Miss Ferguson, a well-known New England teacher,
to found a school on the American model. We
established our station in the grounds of this
school.

The sky on the day of the transit was simply per-
fect. Notwithstanding the intensity of the sun's
rays, the atmosphere was so steady that I have
never seen the sun to better advantage. So all
our observations were successful.

On our departure we left two iron pillars, on
which our apparatus for photographing the sun was
mounted, firmly imbedded in the ground, as we had
used them. Whether they will remain there until
the transit of 2004, 1 do not know, but cannot help
entertaining a sentimental wish that, when the time
of that transit arrives, the phenomenon will be ob-
served from the same station, and the pillars be
found in such a condition that they can again be
used.

All the governments, except our own, which ob-
served the two transits of Venus on a large scale
long ago completed the work of reduction, and
published the observations in full. On our own

178 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

part we have published a preliminary discussion of
some observations of the transit of 1874. Of that
of 1882 nothing has, I believe, been published ex-
cept some brief statements of results of the photo-
graphs, which appeared in an annual report of the
Naval Observatory. Having need in my tables of the
planets of the best value of the solar parallax that
could be obtained by every method, I worked up all
the observations of contacts made by the parties of
every country, but, of course, did not pubhsh our
own observations. Up to the present time, twenty-
eight years after the first of the transits, and twenty
years after the second, our observations have never
been of&ciaUy published except to the extent I have
stated. The importance of the matter may be
judged by the fact that the government expended
$375,000 on these observations, not counting the
salaries of its officers engaged in the work, or the
cost of sailing a naval ship. As I was a mem-
ber of the commission charged with the work, and
must therefore bear my fuU share of the responsi-
bility for this failure, I think it proper to state
briefly how it happened, hoping thereby to enforce
the urgent need of a better organization of some
of our scientific work.

The work of reducing such observations, editing
and preparing them for the press, involved much
computation to be done by assistants, and I, being
secretary of the commission, was charged with the
execution of this part of the work. The appropri-
ations made by Congress for the observations were

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 179

considered available for the reduction also. There
was a small balance left over, and I estimated that
$3000 more would suffice to complete the work.
This was obtained from Congress in the winter of
1875.

About the end of 1876 I was surprised to re-
ceive from the Treasury Department a notification
that the appropriation for the transit of Venus was
almost exhausted, when according to my accounts,
more than $3000 still remained. On inquiry it was
found that the sum appropriated about two years
before had never been placed to the credit of the
transit of Venus commission, having been, in fact,
inserted in a different appropriation bill from that
which contained the former grant.

I, as secretary of the commission, made an appli-
cation to the Treasury Department to have the sum,
late though it was, placed to our credit. But the
money had been expended and nothing could be
now done in the matter.^ The computers had there-
fore to be discharged and the work stopped until
a new appropriation could be obtained from Con-
gress.

During the session of 1876-77, $5000 was there-
fore asked for for the reduction of the observations.
It was refused by the House committee on appro-
priations. I explained the matter to Mr. Juhus H.

1 As this result wonld not be possible under our present system,
which was introduced by the first Cleveland administration, I might
remark that it resulted from a practice on the part of the Treasury
of lumping appropriations on its books in order to simplify the keep-
ing of the accounts.

180 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

Seelye, formerly president of Amherst College, who
was serving a term in Congress. He took much
interest in the subject, and moved the insertion of
the item when the appropriation bill came up be-
fore the House. Mr. Atkins, chairman of the ap-
propriations committee, opposed the motion, main-
taining that the Navy Department had under its
orders plenty of officers who could do the work, so
there was no need of employing the help of com-
puters. But the House took a different view, and
inserted the item over the heads of the appropria-
tions committee.

Now difficulties incident to the divided responsi-
bUity of the commission were met with. During
the interim between the death of Admiral Davis, in
February, 1877, and the coming of Admiral John
Eodgers as his successor, a legal question arose as
to the power of the commission over its members.
The work had to stop until it was settled, and I
had to discharge my computers a second time.
After it was again started I discovered that I
did not have complete control of the funds appro-
priated for reducing the observations. The result
was that the computers had to be discharged and
the work stopped for the third time. This occurred
not long before I started out to observe the transit
in 1882. For me the third hair was the one that
broke the camel's back. I turned the papers and
work over to Professor Harkness, by whom the
subject was continued until he was made astro-
nomical director of the Naval Observatory in 1894.

THE TRANSITS OF VENUS 181

I do not know that the commission was ever for-
mally dissolved. Practically, however, its functions
may be said to have terminated in the year 1886,
when a provision of law was enacted by which all
its property was turned over to the Secretary of the
Navy.

What the present condition of the work may be,
and how much of it is ready for the press, I cannot
say. My impression is that it is in that condition
known in household language as " all done but
finishing." Whether it will ever appear is a ques-
tion for the future. All the men who took part in
it or who understood its details are either dead
or on the retired list, and it is difficult for one not
familiar with it from the beginning to carry it to
completion.

vn

THE LICK OBSEEVATOBY

In the wonderful development of astronomical re-
search in our country during the past twenty years,
no feature is more remarkable than the rise on an
isolated mountain in California of an institution
which, within that brief period, has become one
of the foremost observatories of the world. As
everything connected with the early history of such
an institution must be of interest, it may not be
amiss if I devote a few pages to it.

In 1874 the announcement reached the public
eye that James Lick, an eccentric and wealthy Cal-
ifornian, had given his entire fortune to a board of
trustees to be used for certain public purposes, one
of which was the procuring of the greatest and
most powerful telescope that had ever been made.
There was nothing in the previous history of the
donor that could explain his interest in a great tel-
escope. I am sure he had never looked through a
telescope in his life, and that if he had, and had
been acquainted with the difficulties of an observa-
tion with it, it is quite likely the Lick Observatory
would never have existed. From his point of view,
as, indeed, from that of the public very generally,

THE LICK OBSERVATORY 183

the question of telescopic vision is merely one of
magnifying power. By making an instrument large
and powerful enough we may hope even to discover
rational beings on other planets.

The president of the first board of trustees was
Mr. D. 0. Mills, the well-known capitalist, who had
been president of the Bank of California. Mr.
Mills visited Washington in the summer or autumn
of 1874, and conferred with the astronomers there,
among others myself, on the question of the pro-
posed telescope. I do not think that an observa-
tory properly so called was, at first, in Mr, Lick's
mind ; all he wanted was an immense telescope.

The question was complicated by the result of
some correspondence between Mr. Lick and the
firm of Alvan Clark & Sons. The latter had been
approached to know the cost of constructing the
desired telescope. Without making any exact esti-
mate, or deciding upon the size of the greatest
telescope that could be constructed, they named a
very large smn, |200,000 I believe, as the amount
that could be put into the largest telescope it was
possible to make. Mr. Lick deemed this estimate
exorbitant, and refused to have anything more to
do with the firm. The question now was whether
any one else besides the Clarks could make what
was wanted.

I suggested to Mr. Mills that this question was
a difficult one to answer, as no European maker
was known to rival the Clarks in skill in the desired
direction. It was impossible to learn what could

184 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

be done in Europe except by a personal visit to the
great optical workshops and a few observatories
where great telescopes had been mounted.

I also suggested that a director of the new estab-
lishment should be chosen in advance of beginning
active work, so that everything should be done under
his supervision. As such director I suggested that
very hkely Professor Holden, then my assistant on
the great equatorial, might be well qualified. At
least I could not, at the moment, name any one I
thought would be decidedly preferable to him.
I suggested another man as possibly available, but
remarked that he had been unfortunate. " I don't
want to have anything to do with unfortunate
men," was the reply. The necessity of choosing
a director was not, however, evident, but commu-
nication was opened with Professor Holden as well
as myself to an extent that I did not become
aware of until long afterward.

The outcome of Mr. MiUs's visit was that in
December, 1874, I was invited to visit the Euro-
pean workshops as an agent of the Lick trustees,
with a view of determining whether there was any
chance of getting the telescope made abroad. The
most difficult and delicate question arose in the
beginning ; shall the telescope be a reflector or a
refractor? The largest and most powerful one
that could be made would be, undoubtedly, a re-
flector. And yet reflecting telescopes had not,
as a rule, been successful in permanent practi-
cal work. The world's work in astronomy was

THE LICK OBSEKVATORY 185

done mainly with refracting telescopes. This was
not due to any inherent superiority in the latter,
but to the mechanical difficulties incident to so
supporting the great mirror of a reflecting tele-
scope that it should retain its figure in all posi-
tions. Assuming that the choice must fall upon a
refractor, unless proper guarantees for one of the
other kind should be offered, one of my first visits
was to the glass firm of Chance & Co. in Birming-
ham, who had cast the glass disks for the Wash-
ington telescope. This firm and Feil of Paris were
the only two successful makers of great optical
disks in the world. Chance & Co. offered the best
guarantees, while Feil had more enthusiasm than
capital, although his skill was of the highest. An-
other Paris firm was quite willing to undertake the
completion of the telescope, but it was also evi-
dent that its price was suggested by the supposed
liberality of an eccentric California millionaire. I
returned their first proposal with the assurance that
it would be useless to submit it. A second was
still too high to offer any inducement over the
American firm. Besides, there was no guarantee
of the skill necessary to success.

In Germany the case was still worse. The most
renowned firm there, the successors of Praunho-
fer, were not anxious to undertake such a contract.
The outcome of the matter was that Howard Grubb,
of Dubhn, was the only man abroad with whom
negotiations could be opened with any chance of
success. He was evidently a genius who meant

186 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

business. Yet he had not produced a work which
would justify unhmited confidence in his abiUty to
meet Mr. Lick's requirements. The great Vienna
telescope which he afterward constructed was then
only being projected.

Not long after my return with this not very en-
couraging report, Mr. Lick suddenly revoked his
gift, through some dissatisfaction with the proceed-
ings of his trustees, and appointed a new board to
carry out his plans. This introduced legal compli-
cations, which were soon settled by a friendly suit
on the part of the old trustees, asking authority
to transfer their trust. The president of the new
board was Mr. Richard S. Floyd, a member of the
well-known Virginia family of that name, and a
graduate, or at least a former cadet, of the United
States Naval Academy. I received a visit from him
on his first trip to the East in his of&cial capacity,
early in 1876, I believe. Some correspondence
with Mr. Lick's home representative ensued, of
which the most interesting feature was the donor's
idea of a telescope. He did not see why so elabo-
rate and expensive a mounting as that proposed
was necessary, and thought that the object glass
might be mounted on the simplest kind of a pole
or tower which would admit of its having the re-
quisite motions in connection with the eyepiece.
Whether I succeeded in convincing him of the
impracticabiKty of his scheme, I do not know, as
he died before the matter was settled.

This left the trustees at liberty to bmld and

THE LICK OBSEEVATOKY 187

organize the institution as they deemed best. It
was speedily determined that the object glass should
be shaped by the Clarks, who should also be re-
sponsible for getting the rough disks. This proved
to be a very difficult task. Chance & Co. were
unwiUing to undertake the work and Feil had
gone out of business, leaving the manufacture in
the hands of his son. The latter also failed, and
the father had to return. Ultimately the establish-
ment was purchased by Mantois, whose success was
remarkable. He soon showed himseH able to make
disks not only of much larger size than had ever
before been produced, but of a purity and transpa-
rency which none before him had ever approached.
He died in 1899 or 1900, and it is to be hoped
that his successor tstU prove to be his equal.
' The original plan of Mr. Lick had been to found
the observatory on the borders of Lake Tahoe, but
he grew dissatisfied with this site and, shortly be-
fore his death, made provisional arrangements for
placing it on Mount Hamilton. In 1879 prepara-
tions had so far advanced that it became necessary
to decide whether this was really a suitable loca-
tion. I had grave doubts on the subject. A
mountain side is liable to be heated by the rays of
the sun during the day, and a current of warm air
which would be fatal to the delicacy of astronomi-
cal vision is Uable to rise up the sides and envel-
ope the top of the mountain. I had even been
informed that, on a summer evening, a piece of
paper let loose on the mountain top would be

188 THE EEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMEK

carried up into the air by the current. But, after
all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and
Holden united with me in advising that an expe-
rienced astronomer with a telescope should be
stationed for a few weeks on the mountain in
order to determine, by actual trial, what the condi-
tions of seeing were. The one best man for this
duty was S. W. Burnham of Chicago, who had
already attained a high position in the astronomi-
cal world by the remarkable skill shown in his
observations of double stars. So, in August, 1879,
huts were built on the mountain, and Burnham
was transported thither with his telescope. I fol-
lowed personally in September.

We passed three nights on the mountain with
Captain Floyd, studying the skies by night and
prospecting around in the daytime to see whether
the mountain top or some point in the neighboring
plateau offered the best location for the observa-
tory. So far as the atmospheric conditions were
concerned, the results were beyond our most san-
guine expectations. What the astronomer wants
is not merely a transparent atmosphere, but one of
such steadiness that the image of a star, as seen
in a telescope, may not be disturbed by movements
of the air which are invisible to the naked eye.

Burnham found that there were forty-two first-
class nights during his stay, and only seven which
would be classed as low as medium. In the East
the number of nights which he would call first-
class are but few in a year, and even the medium

THE LICK OBSEEVATORY 189

night is by no means to be counted on. No fur-
ther doubt could remain that the top of the moun-
tain was one of the finest locations in the world
for an astronomical observatory, and it was defi-
nitely selected without further delay.

Sometime after my return Mr. Floyd sent me a
topographical sketch of the mountain, with a re-
quest to prepare preliminary plans for, the obser-
vatory. As I had always looked on Professor
Holden as probably the coming director, I took
him into consultation, and the plans were made
under our joint direction in my office. The posi-
tion and general arrangement of the buildings re-
main, so far as I am aware, much as then planned ;
the principal change being the omission of a long
colonnade extending over the whole length of the
main front in order to secure an artistic and im-
posing aspect from the direction of San Jose.

In the summer of 1885, as I was in New York
in order to sail next day to Europe, I was surprised
by a visit from Judge Hagar, a prominent citizen
of San Francisco, a member of the Board of Re-
gents of the University of California, and an active
politician, who soon afterward became collector of
the port, to consult me on the question of choos-
ing Professor Holden as president of the univer-
sity. This was not to interfere with his becoming
director of the Lick Observatory whenever that
institution should be organized, but was simply a
temporary arrangement to bridge over a difficulty.

In the autumn of 1887 I received an invitation

190 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

from Mr. Floyd to go -with him to Cleveland, in
order to inspect the telescope, which was now nearly
ready for delivery. It was mounted in the year
following, and then Holden stepped from the presi-
dency of the university into the directorship of
the observatory.

The institution made its mark almost from the
beginning. I know of no example in the world
in which young men, most of whom were begin-
ners, attained such success as did those whom
Holden collected around him. The names of Bar-
nard, Campbell, and Schaeberle immediately became
well known in astronomy, owing to the excellence
of their work. Burnham was, of course, no be-
ginner, being already well known, nor was Keeler,
who was also on the staff.

In a few years commenced the epoch-making
work of Campbell, in the most refined and difficult
problem of observational astronomy, — that of the
measurement of the motion of stars to or from
us. Through the appUcation of photography and
minute attention to details, this work of the Lick
Observatory almost immediately gained a position
of preeminence, which it maintains to the present
time. If any rival is to appear, it will probably
be the Yerkes Observatory. The friendly com-
petition which we are likely to see between these
two establishments affords an excellent example of
the spirit of the astronomy of the future. Not-
withstanding their rivalry, each has done and will
do all it can to promote the work of the other.

THE LICK OBSERVATORY 191

The smiles of fortune have been bestowed even
upon efEorts that seemed most unpromising. After
work was well organized, Mr. Crossley, of Eng-
land, presented the observatory with a reflecting
telescope of large size, but which had never gained
a commanding reputation. No member of the stafE
at first seemed ambitious to get hold of such an
instrument, but, in time, Keeler gave it a trial in
photographing nebulae. Then it was found that a
new field lay open. The newly acquired reflector
proved far superior to other instruments for this
purpose, the photographic plates showing countless
nebulae in every part of the sky, which the human
eye was incapable of discerning in the most power-
ful of telescopes.

In 1892, only four years after the mounting of
the telescope, came the surprising announcement
that the work of Galileo on Jupiter had been con-
tinued by the discovery of a fifth satellite to that
planet. This is the most difficult object in the
solar system, only one or two observers besides
Barnard having commanded the means of seeing
it. The incident of my first acquaintance with the
discoverer is not flattering to my pride, but may be
worth recalling.

In 1877 I was president of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science at the
meeting held in Nashvflle. There I was told of a
young man a little over twenty years of age, a
photographer by profession, who was interested in
astronomy, and who desired to see me. I was, of

192 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

course, very glad to make his acquaintance. I
found that with his scanty earnings he had man-
aged either to purchase or to get together the
materials for making a small telescope. He was
desirous of doing something with it that might be
useful in astronomy, and wished to know what sug-
gestions I could make in that hne. I did not for a
moment suppose that there was a reasonable prob-
ability of the young man doing anything better
than amuse himself. At the same time, feeling it
a duty to encourage him, I suggested that there
was only one thing open to an astronomical ob-
server situated as he was, and that was the dis-
covery of comets. I had never even looked for a
comet myself, and knew Uttle about the methods
of exploring the heavens for one, except what had
been told me by H. P. Tuttle. But I gave him
the best directions I could, and we parted. It is
now rather humihating that I did not inquire more
thoroughly into the case. It would have taken
more prescience than I was gifted with to expect
that I should live to see the bashful youth awarded
the gold medal of the Koyal Astronomical Society
for his work.

The term of Holden's administration extended
through some ten years. To me its most singular
feature was the constantly growing unpopularity
of the director. I call it singular because, if we
confine ourselves to the record, it would be difficult
to assign any obvious reason for it. One fact is
indisputable, and that is the wonderful success of

THE LICK OBSERVATOEY 193

the director in selecting young men who were to
make the institution famous by their abilities and
industry. If the highest problem of administra-
tion is to select the right men, the new director
certainly mastered it. So far as Hberty of research
and publication went, the administration had the
appearance of being liberal in the extreme. Doubt-
less there was another side to the question. No-
thing happens spontaneously, and the singular phe-
nomenon of one who had done aU this becoming
a much hated man must have an adequate cause.
I have several times, from pure curiosity, inquired
about the matter of well-informed men. On one
occasion an instance of maladroitness was cited in
reply.

" True," said I, " it was not exactly the thing
to do, but, after all, that is an exceedingly small
matter."

" Yes," was the answer, " that was a small thing,
but put a thousand small things like that together,
and you have a big thing."

A powerful factor in the case may have been his
proceeding, within a year of his appointment, to
file an astounding claim for the sum of $12,000 on
account of services rendered to the observatory in
the capacity of general adviser before his appoint-
ment as director. These services extended from
the beginning of preparations in 1874 up to the
completion of the work. The trustees in replying
to the claim maintained that I had been their prin-
cipal adviser in preparing the plans. However true

194 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

tliis may have been, it was quite evident, from
Holden's statement, that they had been consulting
him on a much larger scale than I had been aware
of. This, however, was none of my concern. I
ventured to express the opinion that the movement
was made merely to place on record a statement of
the director's services ; and that no serious inten-
tion of forcing the matter to a legal decision was
entertained. This surmise proved to be correct, as
nothing more was heard of the claim.

Much has been said of the effect of the com-
parative isolation of such a community, which is
apt to be provocative of internal dissension. But
this cause has not operated in the case of Holden's
successors. Keeler became the second director in
1897, and administered his office with, so far as I
know, universal satisfaction till his lamented death
in 1900. It would not be a gross overstatement
to say that his successor was named by the prac-
tically unanimous voice of a number of the leading
astronomers of the world who were consulted on
the subject, and who cannot but be pleased to see
how completely their advice has been justified by
the result of Campbell's administration.

VIII

THE author's SOIBNTIFIO WORK

Perhaps an apology is due to the reader for my
venturing to devote a chapter to my own efforts
in the scientific Kne. If so, I scarcely know what
apology to make, unless it is that one naturally
feels interested in matters relating to his own work,
and hopes to share that interest with his readers,
and that it is easier for one to write such an ac-
count for himself than for any one else to do it for
him.

Having determined to devote my life to the pro-
secution of exact astronomy, the first important
problem which I took up, while at Cambridge, was
that of the zone of minor planets, frequently called
asteroids, revolving between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter. It was formerly supposed that these small
bodies might be fragments of a large planet which
had been shattered by a collision or explosion. If
such were the case, the orbits would, for a time
at least, all pass through the point at which the
explosion occurred. When only three or four were
known, it was supposed that they did pass nearly
through the same point. When this was found
not to be the case, the theory of an explosion was
in no way weakened, because, owing to the gradual

196 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

changes in the form and position of the orbits, pro-
duced by the attraction of the larger planets, these
orbits would aU move away from the point of inter-
section, and, in the course of thousands of years, be
so mixed up that no connection could be seen be-
tween them. This result was that nothing could
be said upon the subject except that, if the catas-
trophe ever did occur, it must have been many thou-
sand years ago. The fact did not in any way mih-
tate against the theory because, in view of the age
of the universe, the explosion might as well have
occurred hundreds of thousands or even milUons
of years ago as yesterday. To settle the question,
general formulae must be found by which the posi-
tions of these orbits could be determined at any
time in the past, even hundreds of thousands of
years back. The general methods of doing this
were known, but no one had apphed them to the
especial case of these little planets. Here, then,
was an opportunity of tracing back the changes in
these orbits through thousands of centuries in order
to find whether, at a certain epoch in the past, so
great a cataclysm had occurred as the explosion of
a world. Were such the case, it would be possible
almost to set the day of the occurrence. How great
a feat would it be to bring such an event at such a
time to light !

I soon found that the problem, in the form in
which it had been attacked by previous mathe-
maticians, involved no serious difficulty. At the
Springfield meeting of the American Association

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 197

for the Advancement of Science, in 1859, I read
a paper explaining the method, and showed by a
curve on the blackboard the changes in the orbit
of one of the asteroids for a period, I think, of
several hundred thousand years, — " beyond the
memory of the oldest inhabitants " — said one
of the local newspapers. A month later it was
extended to three other asteroids, and the result
published in the " Astronomical Journal." In the
following spring, 1860, the final results of the
completed work were communicated to the Amer-
ican Academy of Arts and Sciences in a paper
" On the Secular Variations and Mutual Eelations
of the Orbits of the Asteroids." The question of
the possible variations in the orbits and the various
relations amongst them were here fully discussed.
One conclusion was that, so far as our present
theory could show, the orbits had never passed
through any common point of intersection.

The whole trend of thought and research since
that time has been toward the conclusion that no
such cataclysm as that looked for ever occurred,
and that the group of small planets has been com-
posed of separate bodies since the solar system came
into existence. It was, of course, a great disap-
pointment not to discover the cataclysm, but next
best to finding a thing is showing that it is not
there. This, it may be remarked, was the first of
my papers to attract especial notice in foreign sci-
entific journals, though I had already published
several short notes on various subjects in the " As-
tronomical Journal."

198 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

At this point I may say something of the prob-
lems of mathematical astronomy in the middle of
the last century. It is well known that we shall at
least come very near the truth when we say that the
planets revolve around the sun, and the satellites
around their primaries according to the law of gravi-
tation. We may regard aU these bodies as projected
into space, and thus moving according to laws simi-
lar to that which governs the motion of a stone
thrown from the hand. If two bodies alone were
concerned, say the sun and a planet, the orbit of the
lesser around the greater would be an ellipse, which
would never change its form, size, or position.
That the orbits of the planets and asteroids do
change, and that they are not exact eUipses, is due
to their attraction upon each other. The question
is, do these mutual attractions completely explain
all the motions down to the last degree of refine-
ment ? Does any world move otherwise than as it
is attracted by other worlds ?

Two different lines of research must be brought
to bear on the question thus presented. We must
first know by the most exact and refined observa-
tions that the astronomer can make exactly how a
heavenly body does move. Its position, or, as we
cannot directly measure distance, its direction from
us, must be determined as precisely as possible from
time to time. Its course has been mapped out for
it in advance by tables which are published in the
" Astronomical Ephemeris," and we may express its
position by its deviation from these tables. Then

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 199

comes in the mathematical problem how it ought
to move under the attraction of all other heavenly
bodies that can influence its motion. The results
must then be compared, in order to see to what con-
clusion we may be led.

This mathematical side of the question is of a
complexity beyond the powers of ordinary concep-
tion. I well remember that when, familiar only
with equations of algebra, I first looked into a book
on mechanics, I was struck by the complexity of the
formulae. But this was nothing to what one finds
when he looks into a work on celestial mechanics,
where a single formula may fiU a whole chapter.
The great difficulty arises from the fact that the
constant action upon a planet exerted at every mo-
ment of time through days and years by another
planet affects its motion in all subsequent time.
The action of Jupiter upon our earth this morning
changes its motion forever, just as a touch upon a
ball thrown by a pitcher will change the direction
of the ball through its whole flight.

The wondrous perfection of mathematical re-
search is shown by the fact that we can now add
up, as it were, all these momentary effects through
years and centuries, with a view of determining the
combined result at any one moment. It is true
that this can be done only in an imperfect way,
and at the expense of enormous labor ; but, by
putting more and more work into it, investigating
deeper and deeper, taking into account smaller and
smaller terms of our formulae, and searching for the

200 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

minutest effects, we may gradually approach, though
we may never reach, absolute exactness. Here we
see the first difficulty in reaching a definite conclu-
sion. One cannot be quite sure that a deviation
is not due to some imperfection in mathematical
method until he and his fellows have exhausted the
subject so thoroughly as to show that no error is
possible. This is hard indeed to do.

Taking up the question on the observational side,
a source of difficulty and confusion at once presented
itself. The motions of a heavenly body from day to
day and year to year are mapped out by comparative
observations on it and on the stars. The question
of the exact positions of the stars thus comes in.
In determining these positions with the highest de-
gree of precision, a great variety of data have to
be used. The astronomer cannot reach a result by
a single step, nor by a hundred steps. He is like a
sculptor chiseling all the time, trying to get nearer
and nearer the ideal form of his statue, and finding
that with every new feature he chisels out, a defect
is brought to Kght in other features. The astron-
omer, when he aims at the highest mathematical
precision in his results, finds Nature warring with
him at every step, just as i£ she wanted to make his
task as difficult as possible. She alters his personal
equation when he gets tired, makes him see a small
star differently from a bright one, gives his instru-
ment minute twists with heat and cold, sends cur-
rents of warm or cold air over his locality, which
refract the rays of light, asks him to keep the tern-

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 201

perature in which he works the same as that out-
side, in order to avoid refraction when the air enters
his observing room, and still will not let him do it,
because the walls and everything inside the room,
being warmed up during the day, make the air
warmer than it is outside. With all these obstacles
which she throws in his way he must simply fight
the best he can, exerting untiring industry to elimi-
nate their effects by repeated observations under a
variety of conditions.

A necessary conclusion from all this is that the
work of all observing astronomers, so far as it could
be used, must be combined into a single whole. But
here again difficulties are met at every step. There
has been, in times past, little or no concert of action
among astronomers at different observatories. The
astronomers of each nation, perhaps of each obser-
vatory, to a large extent, have gone to work in their
own way, using discordant data, perhaps not always
rigidly consistent, even in the data used in a single
establishment. How combine all the astronomical
observations, found scattered through hundreds of
volumes, into a homogeneous whole ?

What is the value of such an attempt? Cer-
tainly if we measure value by the actual expen-
diture of nations and institutions upon the work,
it must be very great. Every civilized nation ex-
pends a large annual sum on a national observatory,
while a still greater number of such institutions are
supported at corporate expense. Considering that
the highest value can be derived from their labors

202 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

only by such a combination as I have described, we
may say the result is worth an important fraction
of what all the observatories of the world have cost
during the past century.

Such was, in a general way, the great problem of
exact astronomy forty or fifty years ago. Its solu-
tion required extended cooperation, and I do not
wish to give the impression that I at once attacked
it, or even considered it as a whole. I could only
determine to do my part in carrying forward the
work associated with it.

Perhaps the most interesting and important
branch of the problem concerned the motion of
the moon. This had been, ever since the founda-
tion of the Greenwich Observatory, in 1670, a
specialty of that institution. It is a curious fact,
however, that while that observatory suppUed all
the observations of the moon, the investigations
based upon these observations were made almost
entirely by foreigners, who also constructed the
tables by which the moon's motion was mapped
out in advance. The most perfect tables made
were those of Hansen, the greatest master of
mathematical astronomy during the middle of the
century, whose tables of the moon were published
by the British government in 1857. They were
based on a few of the Greenwich observations from
1750 to 1850. The period began with 1750, be-
cause that was the earUest at which observations
of any exactness were made. Only a few observa-
tions were used, because Hansen, with the limited

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 203

computing force at his command, — only a single as-
sistant, I believe, — was not able to utilize a great
number of the observations. The rapid motion of
the moon, a circuit being completed in less than
a month, made numerous observations necessary,
while the very large deviations in the motion pro-
duced by the attraction of the sun made the prob-
lem of the mathematical theory of that motion the
most complicated in astronomy. Thus it happened
that, when I commenced work at the Naval Ob-
servatory in 1861, the question whether the moon
exactly followed the course laid out for her by
Hansen's tables was becoming of great importance.

The same question arose in the case of the plan-
ets. So from a survey of the whole field, I made
observations of the sun, moon, and planets my spe-
cialty at the observatory. If the astronomical
reader has before him the volume of observations
for 1861, he will, by looking at pages 366-440, be
able to infer with nearly astronomical precision the
date when I reported for duty.

For a year or two our observations showed that
the moon seemed to be falling a Httle behind her
predicted motion. But this soon ceased, and she
gradually forged ahead in a much more remarkable
way. In five or six years it was evident that this
was becoming permanent ; she was a little farther
ahead every year. What could it mean ? To con-
sider this question, I may add a word to what I
have already said on the subject.

In comparing the observed and predicted motion

204 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

of the moon, mathematicians and astronomers, be-
ginning with Laplace, have been perplexed by
what are called " inequalities of long period."
For a number of years, perhaps haK a century, the
moon would seem to be running ahead, and then
she would gradually relax her speed and fall
behind. Laplace suggested possible causes, but
could not prove them. Hansen, it was supposed,
had straightened out the tangle by showing that
the action of Venus produced a singing of this
sort in the moon ; for one hundred and thirty years
she would be running ahead and then for one hun-
dred and thirty years more faUing back again, like
a pendulum. Two motions of this sort were com-
bined together. They were claimed to explain the
whole difficulty. The moon, having followed Han-
sen's theory for one hundred years, would not be
likely to deviate from it. Now, it was deviating.
What could it mean ?

Taking it for granted, on Hansen's authority,
that his tables represented the motions of the moon
perfectly since 1750, was there no possibility of
learning anything from observations before that
date ? As I have already said, the pubUshed ob-
servations with the usual instruments were not of
that refined character which would decide a ques-
tion like this. But there is another class of obser-
vations which might possibly be available for the
purpose.

Millions of stars, visible with large telescopes,
are scattered over the heavens ; tens of thousands

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 205

are bright enough to be seen with small instru-
ments, and several thousand are visible to any
ordinary eye. The moon, in her monthly course
around the heavens, often passes over a star, and
of course hides it from view during the time re-
quired for the passage. The great majority of
stars are so small that their light is obscured by
the efEulgence of the moon as the latter approaches
them. But quite frequently the star passed over
is so bright that the exact moment when the moon
reaches it can be observed with the utmost preci-
sion. The star then disappears from view in an
instant, as if its light were suddenly and abso-
lutely extinguished. This is called an occultation.
If the moment at which the disappearance takes
place is observed, we know that at that instant the
apparent angle between the centre of the moon
and the star is equal to the moon's semi-diameter.
By the aid of a number of such observations, the
path of the moon in the heavens, and the time at
which she arrives at each point of the path, can be
determined. In order that the determination may
be of sufficient scientific precision, the time of the
occultation must be known within one or two sec-
onds ; otherwise, we shall be in doubt how much
of the discrepancy may be due to the error of the
observation, and how much to the error of the
tables.

Occultations of some bright stars, such as Aldeb-
aran and Antares, can be observed by the naked
eye ; and yet more easily can those of the planets be

206 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

seen. It is therefore a curious historic fact that
there is no certain record of an actual observation
of this sort having been made until after the com-
mencement of the seventeenth century. Even then
the observations were of Uttle or no use, because
astronomers could not determine their time with
sufficient precision. It was not till after the mid-
dle of the century, when the telescope had been
made part of astronomical instruments for finding
the altitude of a heavenly body, and after the pen-
dulum clock had been invented by Huyghens, that
the time of an occultation could be fixed with the
required exactness. Thus it happens that from
1640 to 1670 somewhat coarse observations of the
kind are available, and after the latter epoch those
made by the French astronomers become almost
equal to the modern ones in precision.

The question that occurred to me was : Is it not
possible that such observations were made by as-
tronomers long before 1750 ? Searching the pub-
lished memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences
and the Philosophica;l Transactions, I found that a
few such observations were actually made between
1660 and 1700. I computed and reduced a few
of them, finding with surprise that Hansen's tables
were evidently much in error at that time. But
neither the cause, amount, or nature of the error
could be well determined without more observa-
tions than these. Was it not possible that these
astronomers had made more than they pubUshed ?
The hope that material of this sort existed was

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 207

encouraged by the discovery at the Pulkowa Ob-
servatory of an old manuscript by the French as-
tronomer Delisle, containing some observations of
this kind. I therefore planned a thorough search
of the old records in Europe to see what could be
learned.

The execution of this plan was facilitated by
the occurrence, in December, 1870, of an eclipse
of the sun in Spain and along the Mediterranean.
A number of parties were going out from this
country to observe it, two of which were fitted out
at the Naval Observatory. I was placed in charge
of one of these, consisting, practically, of myself.
The results of my observation would be of impor-
tance in the question of the moon's motion, but,
although the eclipse was ostensibly the main ob-
ject, the proposed search of the records was what
I really had most in view. In Paris was to be
found the most promising mine ; but the Franco-
Prussian war was then going on, and I had to wait
for its termination. Then I made a visit to Paris,
which will be described in a later chapter.

At the observatory the old records I wished to
consult were placed at my disposal, with f uU Kberty
not only to copy, but to publish anything of value
I could find in them. The mine proved rich be-
yond the most sanguine expectation. After a lit-
tle prospecting, I found that the very observations
I wanted had been made in great numbers by the
Paris astronomers, both at the observatory and at
other points in the city.

208 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

And how, the reader may ask, did it happen that
these observations were not published by the astron-
omers who made them ? Why should they have
lain unused and forgotten for two hundred years ?
The answer to these questions is made plain enough
by an examination of the records. The astrono-
mers had no idea of the possible usefulness and
value of what they were recording. So far as we
can infer from their work, they made the observa-
tions merely because an occultation was an interest-
ing thing to see ; and they were men of sufficient
scientific experience and training to have acquired
the excellent habit of noting the time at which a
phenomenon was observed. But they were gener-
ally satisfied with simply putting down the clock
time. How they could have expected their succes-
sors to make any use of such a record, or whether
they had any expectations on the subject, we cannot
say with confidence. It will be readily understood
that no clocks of the present time (much less those
of two hundred years ago) run with such precision
that the moment read from the clock is exact within
one or two seconds. The modern astronomer does
not pretend to keep his clock correct within less
than a minute ; he determines by observation how
far it is wrong, on each date of observation, and
adds so much to the time given by the clock, or
subtracts it, as the case may be, in order to get the
correct moment of true time. In the case of the
French astronomers, the clock would frequently be
fifteen minutes or more in error, for the reason that

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WOEK 209

they used apparent time, instead of mean time as
■we do. Thus when, as was often the case, the only
record found was that, at a certain hour, minute,
and second, by a certain clock, une Stoile se cache
par la lune, a number of very difficult problems
were presented to the astronomer who was to make
use of the observations two centuries afterward.
First of all, he must find out what the error of the
clock was at the designated hour, minute, and sec-
ond ; and for this purpose he must reduce the
observations made by the observer in order to de-
termine the error. But it was very clear that the
observer did not expect any successor to take this
trouble, and therefore did not supply him with any
facilities for so doing. He did not even describe
the particular instrument with which the observa-
tions were made, but only wrote down certain fig-
ures and symbols, of a more or less hieroglyphic
character. It needed much comparison and exam-
ination to find out what sort of an instrument was
used, how the observations were made, and how they
should be utilized for the required purpose.

Generally the star which the moon hid was men-
tioned, but not in all cases. If it was not, the
identification of the star was a puzzling problem.
The only way to proceed was to calculate the ap-
parent position of the centre of the moon as seen
by an observer at the Paris Observatory, at the par-
ticular hour and minute of the observation. A
star map was then taken ; the points of a pair of
dividers were separated by the length of the moon's

210 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

radius, as it would appear on the scale of the map ;
one point of the dividers was put into the position
of the moon's centre on the map, and with the other
a circle was drawn. This circle represented the
outline of the moon, as it appeared to the observer
at the Paris Observatory, at the hour and minute
in question, on a certain day in the seventeenth
century. The star should be found very near the
circumference of the circle, and in nearly all cases
a star was there.

Of course all this could not be done on the spot.
What had to be done was to find the observations,
study their relations and the method of making
them, and copy everything that seemed necessary
for working them up. This took some six weeks,
but the material I carried away proved the great-
est find I ever made. Three or four years were
spent in making all the calculations I have de-
scribed. Then it was found that seventy-five years
were added, at a single step, to the period during
which the history of the moon's motion could be
written. Previously this history was supposed to
commence with the observations of Bradley, at
Greenwich, about 1750 ; now it was extended back
to 1675, and with a less degree of accuracy thirty
years farther still. Hansen's tables were found to
deviate from the truth, in 1675 and subsequent
years, to a surprising extent ; but the cause of the
deviation is not entirely unfolded even now.

During the time I was doing this work, Paris
was under the reign of the Commune and besieged

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 211

by the national forces. The studies had to be
made mthin hearing of the besieging guns; and
I could sometimes go to a window and see flashes
of artillery from one of the fortifications to the
south. Nearly every day I took a walk through
the town, occasionally as far as the Arc. As my
observations during these walks have no scientific
value, I shall postpone an account of what I saw
to another chapter.

One curious result of this work is that the longi-
tude of the moon may now be said to be known
with greater accuracy through the last quarter of
the seventeenth century than during the ninety
years from 1750 to 1840. The reason is that, for
this more modern period, no effective comparison
has been made between observations and Hansen's
tables.

Just as this work was approaching completion I
was called upon to decide a question which would
materially influence all my future activity. The
lamented death of Professor Winlock in 1875 left
vacant the directorship of the Harvard Observa-
tory. A month or two later I was quite taken by
surprise to receive a letter from President Eliot
tendering me this position. I thus had to choose
between two courses. One led immediately to a
professorship in Harvard University, with all the
distinction and worldly advantages associated with
it, including complete freedom of action, an inde-
pendent position, and the opportunity of doing

212 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

such work as I deemed best with the limited re-
sources at the disposal of the observatory. On the
other hand was a position to which the official
world attached no importance, and which brought
with it no worldly advantages whatever.

I first consulted Mr. Secretary Eobeson on the
matter. The force with which he expressed him-
self took me quite by surprise. " By all means
accept the place ; don't remain in the government
service a day longer than you have to. A scien-
tific man here has no future before him, and the
quicker he can get away the better." Then he
began to descant on our miserable " politics "
which brought about such a state of things.

Such words, coming from a sagacious head of a
department who, one might suppose, would have
been sorry to part with a coadjutor of sufficient
importance to be needed by Harvard University,
seemed to me very suggestive. And yet I finally
declined the place, perhaps unwisely for myself,
though no one who knows what the Cambridge
Observatory has become under Professor Pickering
can feel that Harvard has any cause to regret my
decision. An apology for it on my own behalf
will seem more appropriate.

On the Cambridge side it must be remembered
that the Harvard Observatory was then almost no-
thing compared with what it is now. It was poor in
means, meagre in instrumental outfit, and wanting
in working assistants ; I think the latter did not
number more than three or four, with perhaps a few

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 213

other temporary employees. There seemed little
prospect of doing much.

On the Washington side was the fact that I was
bound to Washington by family ties, and that, if
Harvard needed my services, surely the government
needed them much more. True, this argument
was, for the time, annulled by the energetic assur-
ance of Secretary Robeson, showing that the gov-
ernment felt no want of any one in its service able
to command a university professorship. But I
was stiU pervaded by the optimism of youth in
everything that concerned the future of our gov-
ernment, and did not believe that, with the growth
of intelligence in our country, an absence of touch
between the scientific and literary classes on the
one side, and " politics " on the other, could con-
tinue. In addition to this was the general feeling
by which I have been actuated from youth — that
one ought to choose that line of activity for which
Nature had best fitted him, trusting that the oper-
ation of moral causes would, in the end, right
every wrong, rather than look out for place and
preferment. I felt that the conduct of govern-
ment astronomy was that line of activity for which
I was best fitted, and that, in the absence of strong
reason to the contrary, it had better not be
changed. In addition to these general considera-
tions was the special point that, in the course of a
couple of years, the directorship of the Nautical
Almanac would become vacant, and here would
be an unequaled opportunity for carrying on the

214 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

■work in mathematical astronomy I had most at
heart. Yet, could I have foreseen that the want of
touch which I have already referred to would not
be cured, that I should be unable to complete the
work I had mapped out before my retirement, or
to secure active public interest in its continuance,
my decision would perhaps have been different.

On September 15, 1877, I took charge of the
Nautical Almanac Office. The change was one of
the happiest of my hfe. I was now in a position
of recognized responsibility, where my recommen-
dations met with the respect due to that responsi-
bility, where I could make plans with the assur-
ance of being able to carry them out, and where
the coimtless annoyances of being looked upon
as an important factor in work where there was
no chance of my being such would no longer exist.
Practically I had complete control of the work
of the oflB.ce, and was thus, metaphorically speak-
ing, able to work with untied hands. It may seem
almost puerile to say this to men of business ex-
perience, but there is a current notion, spread
among all classes, that because the Naval Obser-
vatory has able and learned professors, therefore
they must be able to do good and satisfactory
work, which may be worth correcting.

I found my new office in a rather dilapidated old
dwelling-house, about half a mile or less from the
observatory, in one of those doubtful regions on
the border hne between a slum and the lowest
order of respectabihty. If I remember aright, the

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 215

only occupants of the place were the superintend-
ent, my old friend Mr. Loomis, senior assistant,
who looked after current business, a proof-reader
and a messenger. All the computers, including
even one copyist, did their work at their homes.

A couple of changes had to be made in the
interest of efficiency. The view taken of one of
these may not only interest the reader, but give
him an idea of what people used to think of gov-
ernment service before the era of civil service
reform. The proof-reader was excellent in every
respect except that of ability to perform his duty.
He occupied a high position, I believe, in the
Grand Army of the Eepublic, and thus wielded a
good deal of influence. When his case was ap-
pealed to the Secretary of the Navy, apellant was
referred to me. I stated the trouble to counsel,
— he did not appear to see figures, or be able to
distinguish whether they were right or wrong, and
therefore was useless as a proof-reader.

" It is not his fault," was the reply ; " he nearly
lost his eyesight in the civil war, and it is hard
for him to see at aU." In the view of counsel
that explanation ought to have settled the case in
his favor. It did not, however, but " influence "
had no difficulty in making itself more successful
in another field.

Among my first steps was that of getting a new
office in the top of the Corcoran Bmlding, then
just completed. It was large and roomy enough
to allow quite a number of assistants around me.

216 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Much of the work was then, as now, done by
the piece, or annual job, the computers on it very
generally working at their homes. This offers
many advantages for such work ; the government is
not burdened with an officer who must be paid his
regular monthly salary whether he supplies his
work or not, and whom it is unpleasant and difficult
to get rid of in case of sickness or breakdown of
any sort. The work is paid for when furnished,
and the main trouble of administration saved. It
is only necessary to have a brief report from time
to time, showing that the work is actually going
on.

I began with a carefid examination of the rela-
tion of prices to work, making an estimate of the
time probably necessary to do each job. Among
the performers of the annual work were several
able and eminent professors at various universities
and schools. I found that they were being paid
at pretty high professional prices. I recall with
great satisfaction that I was able to reduce the
prices and, step by step, concentrate all the work
in Washington, vyithout detriment to the pleasant
relations I sustained with these rnen, some of them
old and intimate friends. These economies went
on increasing year by year, and every dollar that
was saved went into the work of making the tables
necessary for the future use of the Ephemeris.

The programme of work which I mapped out,
involved, as one branch of it, a discussion of all
the observations of value on the positions of the

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 217

sun, moon, and planets, and incidentally, on the
bright fixed stars, made at the leading observa-
tories of the world since 1750. One might almost
say it involved repeating, in a space of ten or fif-
teen years, an important part of the world's work
in astronomy for more than a century past. Of
course, this was impossible to carry out in all its
completeness. In most cases what I was obliged
practically to confine myself to was a correction of
the reductions already made and published. Still,
the job was one with which I do not think any
astronomical one ever before attempted by a single
person could compare in extent. The number of
meridian observations on the sun, Mercury, Venus,
and Mars alone numbered 62,030. They were
made at the observatories of Greenwich, Paris,
Konigsberg, Pulkowa, Cape of Good Hope, — but
I need not go over the entire list, which numbers
thirteen.

The other branches of the work were such as I
have already described, — the computation of the
formulae for the perturbation of the various planets
by each other. As I am writing for the general
reader, I need not go into any further technical
description of this work than I have already done.
Something about my assistants may, however, be
of interest. They were too numerous to be all re-
called individually. In fact, when the work was at
its height, the office was, in the number of its sci-
entific employees, nearly on an equality with the
three or four greatest observatories of the world.

218 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

One o£ my experiences has affected my judgment
on the general morale of the educated young men of
our country. In not a single case did I ever have an
assistant who tried to shirk his duty to the govern-
ment, nor do I think there was more than a single
case in which one tried to contest my judgment of
his own merits, or those of his work. I adopted
the principle that promotion should be by merit
rather than by seniority, and my decisions on that
matter were always accepted without complaint.
I recall two men who voluntarily resigned when
they found that, through failure of health or
strength, they were unable to properly go on with
their work. In frankness I must admit that there
was one case in which I had a very disagreeable
contest in getting rid of a learned gentleman whose
practical powers were so far inferior to his theoret-
ical knowledge that he was almost useless in the
office. He made the fiercest and most determined
fight in which I was ever engaged, but I must, in
justice to aU concerned, say that his defect was not
in will to do his work but in the requisite power.
Officially I was not without fault, because, in the
press of matters requiring my attention, I had en-
trusted too much to him, and did not discover his
deficiencies until some mischief had been done.

Perhaps the most eminent and interesting man
associated with me during this period was Mr.
George W. HUl, who wiU easily rank as the great-
est master of mathematical astronomy during the

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 219

last quarter of the nineteenth century. The only
defect of his make-up of which I have reason
to complain is the lack of the teaching faculty.
Had this been developed in him, I could have
learned very much from him that would have
been to my advantage. In saying this I have one
especial point in mind. In beginning my studies
in celestial mechanics, I lacked the guidance of
some one conversant with the subject on its prac-
tical side. Two systems of computing planetary
perturbations had been used, one by Leverrier,
while the other was invented by Hansen. The
former method was, in principle, of great simpli-
city, while the latter seemed to be very complex
and even clumsy. I naturally supposed that the
man who computed the direction of the planet
Neptune before its existence was known, must be a
master of the whole subject, and followed the lines
he indicated. I gradually discovered the contrary,
and introduced modified methods, but did not en-
tirely break away from the old trammels. Hill had
never been bound by them, and used Hansen's
method from the beginning. Had he given me
a few demonstrations of its advantages, I should
have been saved a great deal of time and labor.

The part assigned to HiU was about the most
difficult in the whole work, — the theory of Jupiter
and Saturn. Owing to the great mass of these
" giant planets," the inequalities of their motion,
especially in the case of Saturn, affected by the
attraction of Jupiter, is greater than in the case

220 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

of the other planets. Leverrier failed to attain the
necessary exactness in his investigation of their
motion. HiU had done some work on the sub-
ject at his home in Nyack Turnpike before I took
charge of the office. He now moved to Washing-
ton, and seriously began the complicated numeri-
cal calculations which his task involved. I urged
that he should accept the assistance of less skilled
computers ; but he declined it from a desire to do
the entire work himself. Computers to make the
dupKcate computations necessary to guard against
accidental numerical errors on his part were all
that he required. He labored almost incessantly
for about ten years, when he handed in the man-
uscript of what now forms Volume IV. of the
" Astronomical Papers."

A pleasant incident occurred in 1884, when the
office was honored by a visit from Professor John
C. Adams of England, the man who, independently
of Leverrier, had computed the place of Neptune,
but failed to receive the hon's share of the honor
because it happened to be the computations of the
Frenchman and not his which led immediately to
the discovery of the planet. It was of the great-
est interest to me to bring two such congenial spir-
its as Adams and HiU together.

It would be difficult to find a more impressive
example than that afforded by Hill's career, of the
difficulty of getting the public to form and act upon
sane judgments in such cases as his. The world
has the highest admiration for astronomical research.

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 221

and in this sentiment our countrymen are foremost.
They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to
promote it. They pay good salaries to professors
who chance to get a certain official position where
they may do good work. And here was per-
haps the greatest living master in the highest and
most difficult field of astronomy, winning world-
wide recognition for his country in the science, and
receiving the salary of a department clerk. I
never wrestled harder with a superior than I did
with Hon. R. W. Thompson, Secretary of the
Navy, ahout 1880, to induce him to raise Mr.
Hill's salary from $1200 to $1400. It goes
without saying that Hill took even less interest
in the matter than I did. He did not work for
pay, but for the love of science- His little farm at
Nyack Turnpike sufficed for his home, and supplied
his necessities so long as he lived there, and aU he
asked in Washington was the means of going on
with his work. The deplorable feature of the situ-
ation is, that this devotion to his science, instead
of commanding due recognition on the public and
official side, rather tended to create an iuadequate
impression of the importance of what he was doing.
That I could not secure for him at least the high-
est official consideration is among the regretful
memories of my official life.

Although, so far as the amount of labor is con-
cerned, Mr. Hill's work upon Jupiter and Saturn
is the most massive he ever undertook, his really
great scientific merit consists in the development

222 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

of a radically new method of computing the in-
equaUties of the moon's motion, which is now
being developed and applied by Professor E. W-
Brown. His most marked intellectual character-
istic is the eminently practical character of his
researches. He does not aim so much at elegant
mathematical formulae, as to determine with the
greatest precision the actual quantities of which
mathematical astronomy stands in need. In this
direction he has left every investigator of recent or
present time far in the rear.

After the computations on Jupiter and Saturn
were made, it was necessary to correct their orbits
and make tables of their motions. This work I
left entirely in Mr. Hill's hands, the only require-
ment being that the masses of the planets and other
data which he adopted should be uniform with
those I used in the rest of the work. His tables
were practically completed in manuscript at the
beginning of 1892. When they were through,
doubtless feeling, as well he might, that he had
done his whole duty to science and the govern-
ment, Mr. HiU resigned his office and returned to
his home. During the summer he paid a visit
to Europe, and visiting the Cambridge University,
was honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws,
along with a distinguished company, headed by the
Duke of Edinburgh. One of the pleasant things
to recall was that, during the fifteen years of our
connection, there was never the slightest dissension
or friction between us.

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 223

I may add that the computations which he made
on the theory of Jupiter and Saturn are all pre-
served complete and in perfect form at the Nauti-
cal Almanac Office, so that, in case any question
should arise respecting them in future generations,
the point can be cleared up by an inspection.

In 1874, three years before I left the observa-
tory, I was informed by Dr. Henry Draper that he
had a mechanical assistant who showed great fond-
ness for and proficiency in some work in mathe-
matical astronomy. I asked to see what he was
doing, and received a collection of papers of a re-
markable kind. They consisted mainly of some of
the complicated developments of celestial mechan-
ics. In returning them I wrote to Draper that,
when I was ready to begin my work on the planet-
ary theories, I must have his man, — could he pos-
sibly be spared ? But he came to me before the
time, while I was carrying on some investigations
with aid afforded by the Smithsonian Institution.
Of course, when I took charge of the Nautical
Almanac Office, he was speedily given employment
on its work. His name was John Meier, a Swiss
by birth, evidently from the peasant class, but who
had nevertheless been a pupil of Professor Ru-
dolph Wolf at Zurich. Emigrating to this country,
he was, during the civil war, an engineer's mate
or something of that grade in the navy. He was
the most perfect example of a mathematical ma-
chine that I ever had at command. Of original

224 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

power, — the facility of developing new methods
and discovering new problems, he had not a par-
ticle. Happily for his peace of mind, he was to-
tally devoid of worldly ambition. I had only to
prepare the fundamental data for him, explain what
was wanted, write down the matters he was to start
with, and he ground out day after day the most
complicated algebraic and trigonometrical compu-
tations with untiring diligence and almost unerring
accuracy.

But a dark side of the picture showed itself
very suddenly and unexpectedly in a few years.
For the most selfish reasons, if for no others, I
desired that his peace of mind should be undis-
turbed. The result was that I was from time to
time appealed to as an arbitrator of family dissen-
sions, in which it was impossible to say which side
was right and which wrong. Then, as a prophy-
lactic against malaria, his wife administered doses
of whiskey. The rest of the history need not be
told. It illustrates the maxim that "blood will
tell," which I fear is as true in scientific work as in
any other field of human activity.

A man of totally difBerent blood, the best in fact,
entered the office shortly before Meier broke down.
This was Mr. Cleveland Keith, son of Professor
Eeuel Keith, who was one of the professors at the
observatory when it was started. His patience
and ability led to his gradually taking the place
of a foreman in supervising the work pertaining
to the reduction of the observations, and the con-

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 225

struction of the tables of the planets. Without
his help, I fear I should never have brought the
tables to a conclusion. He died in 1896, just as
the final results of the work were being put to-
gether.

High among the troublesome problems with
which I had to deal while in charge of the Nau-
tical Almanac, was that of universal time. All
but the youngest of my readers will remember the
period when every railway had its own meridian,
by the time of which its trains were run, which had
to be changed here and there in the case of the
great trunk lines, and which seldom agreed with
the local time of a place. In the Pennsylvania
station at Pittsburg were three different times ;
one that of Philadelphia, one of some point far-
ther west, and the third the local Pittsburg time.
The traveler was constantly hable to miss a train,
a connection, or an engagement by the doubt and
confusion thus arising.

This was remedied in 1883 by the adoption of
our present system of standard times of four dif-
ferent meridians, the introduction of which was
one of the great reforms of our generation. When
this change was made, I was in favor of using Wash-
ington time as the standard, instead of going across
the ocean to Greenwich for a meridian. But those
who were pressing the measure wanted to have a
system for the whole world, and for this purpose
the meridian of Greenwich was the natural one.

226 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Practically our purpose was served as well by the
Greenwich meridian as it would have been by that
of Washington.

The year following this change an international
meridian conference was held at Washington, on
the invitation of our government, to agree upon a
single prime meridian to be adopted by the whole
world in measuring longitudes and indicating time.

Of course the meridian of Greenwich was the
only one that would answer the purpose. This had
already been adopted by several leading maritime
nations, including ourselves as well as Great Brit-
ain. It was merely a question of getting the others
to fall into line. No conference was really neces-
sary for this purpose, because the dissentients caused
much more inconvenience to themselves than to any
one else by their divergent practice. The French
held out against the adoption of the Greenwich
meridian, and proposed one passing through Behr-
ing Strait. I was not a member of the confer-
ence, but was invited to submit my views, which I
did orally. I ventured to point out to the French-
men that the meridian of Greenwich also belonged
to France, passing near Havre and intersecting
their country from north to south. It was there-
fore as much a French as an EngUsh meridian, and
could be adopted without any sacrifice of national
position. But they were not convinced, and will
probably hold out until England adopts the metric
system, on which occasion it is said that they will
be prepared to adopt the Greenwich meridian.

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 227

One proceeding of the conference illustrates a
general characteristic of reformers. Almost with-
out debate, certainly without adequate considera-
tion, the conference adopted a recommendation that
astronomers and navigators should change their
system of reckoning time. Both these classes have,
from time immemorial, begun the day at noon, be-
cause this system was most natural and convenient,
when the question was not that of a measure of
time for daily Hfe, but simply to indicate with
mathematical precision the moment of an event.
Navigators had begun the day at noon, because the
observations of the sun, on which the latitude of a
ship depends, are necessarily made at noon, and
the run of the ship is worked up immediately after-
ward. The proposed change would have produced
unending confusion in astronomical nomenclature,
owing to the difficulty of knowing in all cases which
system of time was used in any given treatise or
record of observations. I therefore felt compelled,
in the general iaterest of science and public con-
venience, to oppose the project with all my power,
suggesting that, if the new system must be put
into operation, we should wait until the beginning
of a new century.

" I hope you will succeed in having its adoption
postponed until 1900," wrote Airy to me, "and
when 1900 comes, I hope you will further succeed
in having it again postponed until the year 2000."

The German official astronomers, and indeed
most of the official ones everywhere, opposed the

228 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

change, but the efforts on the other side were
vigorously continued. The British Admiralty was
strongly urged to introduce the change into the
Nautical Almanac, and the question of doing this
was warmly discussed in various scientific journals.

One result of this movement was that, in 1886,
Eear-Admiral George H. Belknap, superintendent
of the Naval Observatory, and myself were di-
rected to report on the question. I drew up a very
elaborate report, discussing the subject especially
in its relations to navigation, pointing out in the
strongest terms I could the danger of placing in
the hands of navigators an almanac in which the
numbers were given in a form so different from
that to which they were accustomed. If they
chanced to forget the change, the results of their
computations might be out to any extent, to the
great danger and confusion of their reckoning,
while not a soUtary advantage would be gained by
it.

There is some reason to suppose that this docu-
ment found its way to the British Admiralty, but
I never heard a word further on the subject ex-
cept that it ceased to be discussed in London. A
few years later some unavailing efforts were made
to revive the discussion, but the twentieth century
is started without this confusing change being
introduced into the astronomical ephemerides and
nautical almanacs of the world, and navigators are
still at liberty to practice the system they find most
convenient.

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 229

In 1894 I had succeeded in bringing so much of
the work as pertained to the reduction of the ob-
servations and the determination of the elements
of the planets to a conclusion. So far as the larger
planets were concerned, it only remained to con-
struct the necessary tables, which, however, would
be a work of several years.

With the year 1896 came what was perhaps the
most important event in my whole plan. I have
already remarked upon the confusion which per-
vaded the whole system of exact astronomy, arising
from the diversity of the fundamental data made
use of by the astronomers of foreign countries and
various institutions in their work. It was, I think,
rather exceptional that any astronomical result was
based on entirely homogeneous and consistent data.
To remedy this state of things and start the exact
astronomy of the twentieth century on one basis
for the whole world, was one of the objects which
I had mapped out from the beginning. Dr. A.
M. W. Downing, superintendent of the British
Nautical Almanac, was struck by the same consid-
eration and animated by the same motive. He had
especially in view to avoid the duplication of work
which arose from the same computations being
made in difEerent countries for the same result,
whereby much unnecessary labor was expended.
The field of astronomy is so vast, and the quantity
of work urgently required to be done so far beyond
the power of any one nation, that a combination
to avoid all such waste was extremely desirable.

230 THE [REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

When, in 1895, my preliminary results were pub-
lished, . he took the initiative in a project for
putting the idea into effect, by proposing an in-
ternational conference of the directors of the four
leading ephemerides, to agree upon a uniform system
of data for aU computations pertaining to the fixed
stars. This conference was held in Paris in May,
1896. After several days of discussion, it resolved
that, beginning with 1901, a certain set of con-
stants should be used in all the ephemerides, sub-
stantially the same as those I had worked out, but
without certain ulterior, though practically unim-
portant, modifications which I had applied for the
sake of symmetry. My determination of the posi-
tions and motions of the bright fixed stars, which
I had not yet completed, was adopted in advance
for the same purpose, I agreeing to complete it if
possible in time for use in 1901. I also agreed to
make a new determination of the constant of pre-
cession, that which I had used in my previous work
not being quite satisfactory. All this by no means
filled the field of exact astronomy, yet what was
left outside of it was of comparatively little im-
portance for the special object in view.

More than a year after the conference I was taken
quite by surprise by a vigorous attack on its work
and conclusions on the part of Professor Lewis
Boss, director of the Dudley Observatory, warmly
seconded by Mr. S. C. Chandler of Cambridge, the
editor of the " Astronomical Journal." The main
grounds of attack were two in number. The time

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 231

was not ripe for concluding upon a system of pei>
manent astronomical standards. Besides this, the
astronomers of the country should have been con-
sulted before a decision was reached.

Ultimately the attack led to a result which
may appear curious to the future astronomer. He
will find the foreign ephemerides using uniform
data worked out in the office of the "American
Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac " at Washington
for the years beginning with 1901. He will find
that these same data, after being partially adopted
in the ephemeris for 1900, were thrown out in 1901,
and the antiquated ones reintroduced in the main
body of the ephemeris. The new ones appear
simply in an appendix.

As, under the operation of law, I should be re-
tired from active service in the March following the
conference, it became a serious question whether I
should be able to finish the work that had been
mapped out, as well as the planetary tables. Mr.
Secretary Herbert, on his own motion so far as I
know, sent for me to inquire into the subject. The
result of the conference was a movement on his
part to secure an appropriation somewhat less than
the highest salary of a professor, to compensate me
for the completion of the work after my retire-
ment. The House Committee on Appropriations,
ever mindful of economy in any new item, reduced
the amount to a clerical salary. The committee of
conference compromised on a mean between the
two. It happened that the work on the stars was

232 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

not specified in the law, — only the tables of the
planets. In consequence I had no legal right to
go on with the former, although the ephemerides of
Europe were waiting for the results. After much
trouble an arrangement was effected under which
the computers on the work were not to be prohib-
ited from consulting me in its prosecution.

Astronomical work is never really done and fin-
ished. The questions growing out of the agree-
ment or non-agreement of the tables with observa-
tions stiU remain to be studied, and require an im-
mense amount of computation. In what country
and by whom these computations will be made no
one can now teU. The work which I most regretted
to leave unfinished was that on the motion of the
moon. As I have already said, this work is com-
plete to 1750. The computations for carrying it on
from 1750 to the present time were perhaps three
fourths done when I had to lay them aside. In
1902, when the Carnegie Institution was organ-
ized, it made a grant for supplying me with the
computing assistance and other facilities necessary
for the work, and the Secretary of the Navy
allowed me the use of the old computations. Un-
der such auspices the work was recommenced in
March, 1903.

So far as I can recall, I never asked anything from
the government which would in any way promote
my personal interests. The only exception, if such
it is, is that during the civil war I joined with
other professors in asking that we be put on the

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK 233

same' footing with other staff corps of the navy as
regarded pay and rank. So far as my views were
concerned, the rank was merely a pro forma mat-
ter, as I never could see any sound reason for a
man pursuing astronomical duties caring to have
nailitary rank.

In conducting my office also, the utmost economy
was always studied. The increase in the annual
appropriations for which I asked was so small that,
when I left the office in 1877, they were just
about the same as they were back in the fifties,
when it was first established. The necessary funds
were saved by economical administration. All
this was done with a feeling that, after my retire-
ment, the satisfaction with which one could look
back on such a policy would be enhanced by a
feeliag on the part of the representatives of the
public that the work I had done must be worthy
of having some pains taken to secure its continu-
ance in the same spirit.

I do not beheve that the men who conduct our
own government are a whit behind the foremost of
other countries in the desire to promote science.
If after my retirement no special measures were
deemed necessary to secure the continuance of the
work in which I had been engaged, I prefer to at-
tribute it to adventitious circumstances rather than
to any undervaluation of scientific research by our
authorities.

IX

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON

It is sometimes said that no man, in passing away,
leaves a place which cannot be equally well filled
by another. This is doubtless true in all ordinary
cases. But scientific research, and scientific affairs
generally at the national capital, form an exception
to many of the rules drawn from experience in
other fields.

Professor Joseph Henry, first secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, was a man of whom it may
be said, without any reflection on men of our gen-
eration, that he held a place which has never been
filled. I do not mean his official place, but his
position as the recognized leader and exponent of
scientific interests at the national capital. A world-
wide reputation as a scientific investigator, exalted
character and inspiring presence, broad views of
men and things, the love and esteem of all, com-
bined to make him the ma^ to whom all who knew
him looked for counsel and guidance in matters
affecting the interests of science. Whether any one
could since have assumed this position, I will not
venture to say ; but the fact seems to be that no
one has been at the same time able and willing to
assume it.

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 235

On coming to Washington I soon became very-
intimate with Professor Henry, and I do not think
there was any one here to whom he set forth his
personal wishes and convictions respecting the pol-
icy of the Smithsonian Institution and its relations
to the government more freely than he did to me.
As every point connected with the history and policy
of this establishment is of world-wide interest, and
as Professor Henry used to put some things in a
different light from that shed upon the subject by ^
current publications, I shall mention a few points
that might otherwise be overlooked.

It has always seemed to me that a deep mystery
enshrouded the act of Smithson in devising his for-
tune as he did. That an Englishman, whose con-
nections and associations were entirely with the
intellectual classes, — who had never, so far as is
known, a single American connection, or the slight-
est inclination toward democracy, — should, in the
intellectual condition of our country during the
early years 6i the century, have chosen its govern-
ment as his trustee-for the foundation of a scientific
institution, does of itself seem singular enough.
What seems yet more singular is that no instruc-
tions whatever were given in his will or found in
his papers beyond the comprehensive one " to found
an institution at Washington to be called the Smith-
sonian Institution for the increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men." No plan of the institu-
tion, no scrap of paper which might assist in the
interpretation of the mandate, was ever discovered.

236 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Not a word respecting his intention was ever known
to have been uttered. Only a single remark was
ever recorded which indicated that he had anything
unusual in view. He did at one time say, "My
name shall live in the memory of men when the
titles of the Northumberlands and the Percys are
extinct and forgotten."

One result of this failure to indicate a plan for
the institution was that, when the government re-
ceived the money, Congress was at a loss what to
dp with it. Some ten years were spent in discuss-
ing schemes of various kinds, among them that of
declining the gift altogether. Then it was decided
that the institution should be governed by a Board
of Regents, who should elect a secretary as their
executive officer and the administrator of the in-
stitution. The latter was to include a library, a
museum, and a gallery of art. The plans for the
fine structure, so well known to every visitor to
the capital, were prepared, the building was started,
the regents organized, and Professor Henry made
secretary.

We might almost say that Henry was opposed
to every special function assigned to the institu-
tion by the organic law. He did not agree with
me as to any mystery surrounding the intentions
of the founder. To him they were perfectly clear.
Smithson was a scientific investigator ; and the in-
crease and diffusion of knowledge among men
could be best promoted on the lines that he de-
sired, by scientific investigation and the pubHca-

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 237

tion of scientific researches. For this purpose a
great building was not necessary, and he regretted
all the money spent on it. The library, museum,
and gallery of art would be of only local advan-
tage, whereas " diffusion among men " implied all
men, whether they could visit Washington or not.
It was clearly the business of the government to
supply purely local facilities for study and research,
and the endowment of Smithson should not be used
for such a purpose.

His opposition to the building tinged the whole
course of his thought, I doubt whether he was
ever called upon by founders of institutions of any
sort for counsel without his warning them to be-
ware of spending their money in bricks and mortar.
The building being already started before he took
charge, and the three other objects being sanc-
tioned by law, he was, of course, hampered in
carrying out his views. But he did his utmost to
reduce to a minimum the amount of the fund that
should be devoted to the objects specified.

This policy brought on the most animated con-
test in the history of the institution. It was essen-
tial that his most influential assistants should share
his views or at least not thwart them. This, he
found, was not the case. The hbrarian, Mr. C. C.
Jewett, an able and accomplished man in the line
of his profession, was desirous of collecting one of
the finest scientific libraries. A contest arose, to
which Professor Henry put an end by the bold
course of removing the librarian from of&ce. Mr.

238 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Jewett denied his power to do this, and the question
came before the board of regents. The majority
of these voted that the secretary had the power
to remove his assistants. Among the minority was
Rufus Choate, who was so strongly opposed to the
action that he emphasized his protest against it by
resigning from the board.

A question of legal interpretation came in to
make the situation yet more difficult. The regents
had resolved that, after the completion of the
building, one half the income should be devoted
to those objects which Professor Henry considered
most appropriate. Meanwhile there was no hmit
to the amount that might be appropriated to these
objects, but Mr. Jewett and other heads of de-
partments wished to apply the rule from the begin-
ning. Henry refused to do so, and looked with
entire satisfaction on the slowness of completion of
what was, in his eyes, an undesirable building.

It must be admitted that there was one point
which Professor Henry either failed to appreci-
ate, or perhaps thought unworthy of consideration.
This is, the strong hold on the minds of men which
an institution is able to secure through the agency
of an imposing building. Saying nothing of the
artistic and educational value of a beautiful piece
of architecture, it would seem that such a structure
has a pecuKar power of impressing the minds of
men with the importance of the object to which
it is devoted, or of the work going on within it.
Had Professor Henry been allowed to perform all

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 239

the functions of the Smithsonian Institution in a
moderate-sized hired house, as he felt himself abun-
dantly able to do, I have very serious doubts whether
it would have acquired its present celebrity and
gained its present high place in the estimation of
the pubhc.

In the winter of 1865 the institution suffered an
irreparable loss by a conflagration which destroyed
the central portion of the building. At that time
the gallery of art had been confined to a collection
of portraits of Indians by Stanley. This collection
was entirely destroyed. The library, being at one
end, remained intact. The lecture room, where
courses of scientific lectures had been delivered by
eminent men of science, was also destroyed. This
event gave Professor Henry an opportunity of tak-
ing a long step in the direction he desired. He
induced Congress to take the Smithsonian hbrary
on deposit as a part of its own, and thus relieve
the institution of the cost of supporting this branch.
The Corcoran Art Gallery had been founded in the
mean time, and relieved the institution of all neces-
sity for supporting a gallery of art. He would
gladly have seen the National Museum made a
separate institution, and the Smithsonian building
purchased by the government for its use, but he
found no chance of carrying this out.

After the death of Professor Henry the Institu-
tion grew rapidly into a position in which it might
almost claim to be a scientific department of the
government. The National Museum, remaining

240 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

under its administration, was greatly enlarged, and
one of its ramifications was extended into the Na-
tional Zoological Park. The studies of Indian
ethnology, begun by Major J. W. Powell, grew
into the Bureau of Ethnology. The Astrophysi-
cal Observatory was estabhshed, in which Professor
Langley has continued his epoch-making work on
the sun's radiant heat with his wonderful bolometer,
an instrument of his own invention.

Before he was appointed to succeed Professor
Henry, Professor Baird was serving as United
States Fish Commissioner, and continued to fill this
office, without other salary than that paid by the
Smithsonian Institution. The economic importance
of the work done and still carried on by this com-
mission is too well known to need a statement.
About the time of Baird's death, the work of the
commission was separated from that of the Institu-
tion by providing a salary for the commissioner.

We have here a great extension of the idea of
an institution for scientific pubHcations and research.
I recall once suggesting to Professor Baird the
question whether the utilization of the institution
founded by Smithson for carrying on and promot-
ing such government work as that of the National
Museum was really the right thing to do. He re-
plied, " It is not a case of using the Smithsonian
fund for government work, but of the government
making appropriations for the work of the Smith-
sonian Institution." Between the two sides of the
question thus presented, — one emphasizing the

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 241

honor done to Smithson by expanding the insti-
tution which bears his name, and the other aiming
solely at the best administration of the fund which
we hold in trust for him, — I do not pretend to
decide.

On the academic side of social life in Washing-
ton, the numerous associations of alumni of colleges
and universities hold a prominent place. One of
the earliest of these was that of Yale, which has
held an annual banquet every year, at least since
1877, when I first became a member. Its member-
ship at this time included Mr. W. M. Evarts, then
Secretary of State, Chief Justice Waite, Senator
Dawes, and a number of other men prominent in
political life. The most attractive speaker was Mr.
Evarts, and the fact that his views of education
were somewhat conservative added much to the
interest of his speeches. He generally had some-
thing to say in favor of the system of a prescribed
curriculum in liberal education, which was then
considered as quite antiquated. When President
Dwight, shortly after his accession to office, visited
the capital to explain the modernizing of the Yale
educational system, he told the alumni that the
college now offered ninety-five courses to under-
graduates. Evarts congratulated the coming stu-
dents on sitting at a banquet table where they had
their choice of ninety-five courses of intellectual
aliment.

Perhaps the strongest testimonial of the interest

242 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

attached to these reunions was unconsciously given
by President Hayes. He had received an honorary
degree from Yale, and I chanced to be on the com-
mittee which called to invite him to the next ban-
quet. He pleaded, as I suppose Presidents always
do, the multiphcity of his engagements, but finally
said, —

" Well, gentlemen, I will come, but it must be
on two well-understood conditions. In the first
place, I must not be called to my feet. You must
not expect a speech of me. The second condition
is, I must be allowed to leave punctually at ten
o'clock."

" We regret your conditions, Mr. President," was
the reply, "but must, of course, accede to them, if
you insist."

He came to the banquet, he made a speech, — a
very good, and not a very short one, — and he re-
mained, an interested hearer, until nearly two o'clock
in the morning.

In recent years I cannot avoid a feeling that
a change has come over the spirit of such associa-
tions. One might gather the impression that the
apothegm of Sir WiUiam Hamilton needed a sKght
amendment.

On earth is nothing great but Man,
In Man is nothing great but Mind.

Strike out the last word, and insert "Muscle."
The reader wiU please not misinterpret this remark.
I admire the physically perfect man, loving every-
thing out of doors, and animated by the spirit that

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 243

takes him through polar snows and over mountain
tops. But I do not feel that mere muscular prac-
tice during a few years of college life really fosters
this spirit.

Among the former institutions of Washington
of which the memory is worth preserving, was the
Scientific Club. This was one of those small groups,
more common in other cities than in Washington,
of men interested in some field of thought, who
meet at brief intervals at one another's houses, per-
haps listen to a paper, and wind up with a supper.
When or how the Washington Club originated, I
do not know, but it was probably sometime during
the fifties. Its membership seems to have been
rather ill defined, for, although I have always
been regarded as a member, and am mentioned in
McCuUoch's book as such,^ I do not think I ever
received any formal notice of election. The club
was not exclusively scientific, but included in its
list the leading men who were supposed to be inter-
ested in scientific matters, and whose company was
pleasant to the others. Mr. McCuUoch himself.
General Sherman, and Chief Justice Chase are ex-
amples of the members of the club who were of
this class.

It was at the club meetings that I made the ac-
quaintance of General Sherman. His strong char-
acteristics were as clearly seen at these evening

1 Men and Measures of Half a Century, by Hugh McCulloch.
New York : Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1889.

244 THE KEMINISCENCES OF ATT ASTRONOMER

gatherings as in a military campaign. His restless-
ness was such that he found it hard to sit still,
especially in his own house, two minutes at a time.
His terse sentences, leaving no douht in the mind
of the hearer as to what he meant, always had the
same snap. One of his military letters is worth
reviving. When he was carrying on his campaign
in Georgia against Hood, the latter was anxious
that the war should damage general commercial
interests as Httle as possible ; so he sent General
Sherman a letter setting forth the terms and condi-
tions on which he, Hood, would refrain from burn-
ing the cotton in his line of march, but leave it be-
hind, — at as great length and with as much detail
as if it were a treaty of peace between two nations.
Sherman's reply was couched in a single sentence :
" I hope you will burn all the cotton you can, for
all you don't burn I wUl." When he introduced
two people, he did not simply mention their names,
but told who each one was. In introducing the
adjutant-general to another officer who had just
come into Washington, he added, " You know his
signature."

Mr. McCuUoch, who succeeded Mr. Chase as
Secretary of the Treasury, was my beau id^al of an
administrator. In his personal make-up, he was as
completely the opposite of General Sherman as a
man well could be. Dehberate, impassive, heavy
of bmld, slow in physical movement, he would have
been supposed, at first sight, a man who would take
life easy, and concern himself as little as possible

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 245

about public affairs. But, after all, there is a qual-
ity in the head of a great department which is quite
distinct from sprightliness, and that is wisdom.
This he possessed in the highest degree. The im-
press which he made on our fiscal system was not
the product of what looked like energetic personal
action, but of a careful study of the prevailing con-
ditions of public opinion, and of the means at his
disposal for keeping the movement of things in the
right direction. His pohcy was what is sometimes
claimed, and correctly, I believe, to embody the
highest administrative wisdom : that of doing no-
thing himself that he could get others to do for
him. In this way aU his energies could be devoted
to his proper work, that of getting the best men in
office, and of devising measures from time to time
calculated to carry the government along the lines
which he judged to be best for the public interests.

The name of another attendant at the meetings
of the club has from time to time excited interest
because of its connection with a fundamental prin-
ciple of evolutionary astronomy. This principle,
which looks paradoxical enough, is that up to a
certain stage, as a star loses heat by radiation into
space, its temperature becomes higher. It is now
known as Lane's Law. Some curiosity as to its
origin, as well as the personality of its author, has
sometimes been expressed. As the story has never
been printed, I ask leave to tell it.

Among the attendants at the meetings of the
Scientific Club was an odd-looking and odd-man-

246 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

nered Kttle man, rather intellectual in appearance,
■who listened attentively to what others said, but
who, so far as I noticed, never said a word himself.
Up to the time of which I am speaking, I did not
even know his name, as there was nothing but his
oddity to excite any interest in him.

One evening about the year 1867, the club met,
as it not infrequently did, at the home of Mr. Mc-
Culloch. After the meeting Mr. W. B. Taylor,
afterward connected with the Smithsonian Institu-
tion in an editorial capacity, accompanied by the
little man, set out to walk to his home, which I be-
heve was somewhere near the Smithsonian grounds.
At any rate, I joined them in their walk, which
led through these grounds. A few days previous
there had appeared in the " Reader," an English
weekly periodical having a scientific character, an
article describing a new theory of the sun. The
view maintained was that the sun was not a molten
hquid, as had generally been supposed up to that
time, but a mass of incandescent gas, perhaps con-
densed at its outer surface, so as to form a sort of
immense bubble. I had never before heard of the
theory, but it was so plausible that there could be
no difficulty in accepting it. So, as we wended our
way through the Smithsonian grounds, I explained
the theory to my companions in that ex cathedra
style which one is apt to assume in setting forth a
new idea to people who know little or nothing of
the subject. My talk was mainly designed for Mr.
Taylor, because I did not suppose the Httle man

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 247

would take any interest in it. I was, therefore,
much astonished when, at a certain point, he chal-
lenged, in quite a decisive tone, the correctness of
one of my propositions. In a rather more modest
way, I tried to maintain my ground, but was quite
silenced by the Httle man informing us that he had
investigated the whole subject, and found so and
so — different from what I had been laying down.

I immediately stepped down from the pontifical
chair, and asked the Kttle man to occupy it and
teU us more about the matter, which he did.
Whether the theorem to which I have alluded was
included in his statement, I do not recall. If it
was not, he told me about it subsequently, and
spoke of a paper he had pubHshed, or was about
to publish, in the " American Journal of Science."
I find that this paper appeared in Volume L. in
1870.

Naturally I cultivated the acquaintance of such
a man. His name was J. Homer Lane. He was
quite alone in the world, haAang neither family nor
near relative, so far as any one knew. He had for-
merly been an examiner or something similar in the
Patent Office, but under the system which prevailed
in those days, a man with no more political influ-
ence than he had was very Hable to lose his posi-
tion, as he actually did. He lived in a good deal
such a habitation and surroundings as men like
Johnson and Goldsmith lived in in their time. If
his home was not exactly a garret, it came as near
it as a lodging of the present day ever does.

248 THE EEMLNISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

After the paper in question appeared, I called
Mr. Lane's attention to the fact that I did not find
any statement of the theorem which he had men-
tioned to me to be contained in it. He admitted
that it was contained in it only impHedly, and pro-
ceded to give me a very brief and simple demon-
stration.

So the matter stood, until the centennial year,
1876, when Sir William Thomson paid a visit to
this country. I passed a very pleasant evening
with him at the Smithsonian Institution, engaged
in a discussion, some points of which he afterwards
mentioned in an address to the British Association.
Among other matters, I mentioned this law, ori-
ginating with Mr. J. Homer Lane. He did not
think it could be well founded, and when I at-
tempted to reproduce Mr. Lane's verbal demonstra-
tion, I found myself unable to do so. I told him
I felt quite sure about the matter, and would write
to him on the subject. When I again met Mr.
Lane, I told him of my difficulty, and asked him
to repeat the demonstration. He did so at once,
and I sent it off to Sir William. The latter imme-
diately accepted the result, and published a paper
on the subject, in which the theorem was made
pubUc for the first time.

It is very singular that a man of such acuteness
never achieved anything else of significance. He
was at my station on one occasion when a total
ecKpse of the sun was to be observed, and made a
report on what he saw. At th^ same time he called

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 249

my attention to a slight source of error with which
photographs of the transit of Venus might be af-
fected. The idea was a very ingenious one, and
was published in due course.

Altogether, the picture of his Hfe and death re-
mains in my memory as a sad one, the brightest
gleam being the fact that he was elected a member
of the National Academy of Sciences, which must
have been to him a very grateful recognition of his
work on the part of his scientific associates. When
he died, his funeral was attended only by a few of
his feUow members of the academy. Altogether,
I feel it eminently appropriate that his name should
be perpetuated by the theorem of which I have
spoken.

If the National Academy of Sciences has not
proved as influential a body as such an academy
should, it has still taken such a place in science,
and rendered services of such importance to the
government, that the circumstances connected with
its origin are of permanent historic interest. As
the writer was not a charter member, he cannot
claim to have been " in at the birth," though he
became, from time to time, a repository of desultory
information on the subject. There is abundant
internal and circumstantial evidence that Dr. B. A.
Gould, although his name has, so far as I am aware,
never been mentioned in this connection, was a
leading spirit in the first organization. On the
other hand, curiously enough, Professor Henry was

250 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

not. I was quite satisfied that Bache took an active
part, but Henry assured me that he could not be-
lieve this, because he was so intimate with Bache
that, had the latter known anything of the matter,
he would surely have consulted him. Some recent
light is thrown on the subject by letters of Rear-
Admiral Charles H. Davis, found in his " Life," as
published by his son. Everything was carried on
in the greatest secrecy, until the bill chartering the
body was introduced by Senator Henry Wilson of
Massachusetts. Fifty charter members were named,
and this number was fixed as the perma^ent limit
to the membership. The list did not include either
George P. Bond, director of the Harvard Observa-
tory, perhaps the foremost American astronomer of
the time in charge of an observatory, nor Dr. John
W. Draper. Yet the total membership in the sec-
tion of astronomy and kindred sciences was very
large. A story to which I give credence was that
the original list, as handed to Senator Wilson, did
not include the name of William B. Rogers, who
was then founding the Institute of Technology.
The senator made it a condition that room for
Rogers should be found, and his wish was acceded
to. It is of interest that the man thus added to
the academy by a senator afterward became its
president, and proved as able and popular a pre-
siding officer as it ever had.

The governmental importance of the academy
arose from the fact that its charter made it the
scientific adviser of the government, by providing

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 251

that it should " investigate, examine, experiment,
and report upon any subject of science or art "
whenever called upon by any department of the
government. In this respect it was intended to
perform the same valuable functions for the gov-
ernment that are expected of the national scientific
academies or societies of foreign countries.

The academy was empowered to make its own
constitution. That first adopted was sufficiently
rigid and complex. Following the example of
European bodies of the same sort, it was divided
into two classes, one of mathematical and physi-
cal, the other of natural science. Each of these
classes was divided into sections. A very elaborate
system of procedure for the choice of new members
was provided. Any member absent from four con-
secutive stated meetings of the academy had his
name stricken from the roU unless he communicated
a vaHd reason for his absence. Notwithstanding
this requirement, the academy had no funds to de-
fray the traveling expenses of members, nor did
the government ever appropriate money for this
purpose.

For seven years it became increasingly doubtful
whether the organization would not be abandoned.
Several of the most eminent members took no in-
terest whatever in the academy, — did not attend
the meetings, but did tender their resignations,
which, however, were not accepted. This went on
at such a rate that, in 1870, to avoid a threatened
dissolution, a radical change was made in the con-

252 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

stitution. Congress was asked to remove the re-
striction upon the number of members, which it
promptly did. Classes and sections were entirely
abandoned. The members formed but a single
body. The method of election was simplified, —
too much simplified, in fact.

The election of new members is, perhaps, the
most difficult and delicate function of such an or-
ganization. It is one which cannot be performed to
public satisfaction, nor without making many mis-
takes ; and the avoidance of the latter is vastly more
difficult when the members are so widely separated
and have little opportunity to discuss in advance
the merits of the men from whom a selection is
to be made. An ideal selection cannot be made
until after a man is dead, so that his work can be
summed up ; but I think it may fairly be said that,
on the whole, the selections have been as good as
could be expected under the conditions.

Notwithstanding the indifference of the govern-
ment to the possible benefits that the academy
might render it, it has — in addition to numerous
reports on minor subjects — made two of capital
importance to the public welfare. One of these
was the planning of the United States Geological
Survey, the other the organization of a forestry
system for the United States.

During the years 1870-77, besides several tem-
porary surveys or expeditions which had from time
to time been conducted under the auspices of the
government, there were growing up two permanent

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 263

surveys of the territories. One of these was the
Geographical Survey of territories west of the
100th meridian, under the Chief of Engineers of
the Army; the other was the Geological Survey
of the territories under the Interior Department,
of which the chief was Professor F. V. Hayden.

The methods adopted by the two chiefs to gain
the approval of the public and the favoring smiles
of Congress were certainly very difEerent. Wheel-
er's efforts were made altogether by ofl&cial methods
and through official channels. Hayden considered
it his duty to give the public every possible oppor-
tunity to see what he was doing and to judge his
work. His efEorts were chronicled at length in
the pubKc prints. His summers were spent in the
field, and his winters were devoted to working up
results and making every effort to secure influence.
An attractive personality and extreme readiness to
show every visitor all that there was to be seen in
his collections, facihtated his success. One day a
friend introduced a number of children with an ex-
pression of doubt as to the little visitors being wel-
come. " Oh, I always like to have the children
come here," he replied, " they influence their par-
ents." He was so successful in his efforts that his
organization grew apace, and soon developed into
the Geological Survey of the Territories.

Ostensibly the objects of the two organizations
were different. One had miHtary requirements
mainly in view, especially the mapping of routes.
Hayden's survey was mainly in the interests of

254 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

geology. Practically, however, the two covered
the same field in all points. The military survey
extended its scope by including everything neces-
sary for a complete geographical and geological
atlas. The geological survey was necessarily a
complete topographical and geological survey from
the beginning. Between 1870 and 1877, both
were engaged in making an atlas of Colorado, on
the maps of which were given the same topo-
graphical features and the same lines of communi-
cation. Parties of the two surveys mounted their
theodohtes on the same mountains, and triangulated
the same regions. The Hayden survey published
a complete atlas of Colorado, probably more finely
gotten up than any atlas of a State in the Union,
while the Wheeler survey was vigorously engaged
in issuing maps of the same territory. No effort
to prevent this dupKcation of work by making an
arrangement between the two organizations led to
any result. Neither had any official knowledge of
the work of the other. Unofficially, the one was
dissatisfied with the political methods of the other,
and claimed that the maps which it produced were
not fit for nulitary purposes. Hayden retorted
with unofficial reflections on the geological expert-
ness of the engineers, and maintained that their
work was not of the best. He got up by far the
best maps ; Wheeler, in the interests of economy,
was willing to sacrifice artistic appearance to eco-
nomy of production. We thus had the curious
spectacle of the government supporting two inde-

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 265

pendent surveys of the same region. Various
compromises were attempted, but they all came to
nothing. The state of things was clear enough to
Congress, but the repugnance of our national legis-
lature to the adoption of decisive measures of any
sort for the settlement of a disputed administrative
question prevented any effective action. Infant
bureaus may quarrel with each other and eat up
the paternal substance, but the parent cannot make
up his mind to starve them outright, or even to
chastise them into a spirit of conciliation. Un-
able to decide between them. Congress for some
years pursued the policy of supporting both sur-
veys.

The credit for introducing a measure which
would certainly lead to unification is due to Mr.
A. S. Hewitt, of New York, then a member of the
Committee on Appropriations. He proposed to
refer the whole subject to the National Academy
of Sciences. His committee accepted his view, and
a clause was inserted in the Sundry Civil Bill of
June 30, 1878, requiring the academy at its next
meeting to take the matter into consideration and
report to Congress " as soon thereafter as may be
practicable, a plan for surveying and mapping the
territory of the United States on such general
system as wUl, in their judgment, secure the best
results at the least possible cost."

Several of the older and more conservative mem-
bers of the academy objected that this question
was not one of science or art, with which alone the

256 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

academy was competent to deal, but was a purely
administrative question which Congress should
settle for itself. They feared that the academy
would be drawn into the arena of political discus-
sion to an extent detrimental to its future and wel-
fare and usefulness. Whether the exception was
or was not well taken, it was felt that the academy,
the creature of Congress, could not join issue with
the latter as to its functions, nor should an oppor-
tunity of rendering a great service to the govern-
ment be lost for such a reason as this.

The plan reported by the academy was radical
and comprehensive. It proposed to abolish all the
existing surveys of the territories except those
which, being temporary, were completing their
work, and to substitute for them a single organiza-
tion which would include the surveys of the public
lands in its scope. The interior work of the Coast
and Geodetic Survey was included in the plan, it
being proposed to transfer this bureau to the Inte-
rior Department, with its functions so extended as
to include the entire work of triangulation.

When the proposition came up in Congress at
the following session, it was vigorously fought
by the Chief of Engineers of the army, and by
the General Land OfB.ce, of which the surveying
functions were practically abolished. The Land
Office carried its point, and was eliminated from
the scheme. General Humphreys, the Chief of
Engineers, was a member of the academy, but re-
signed on the ground that he could not properly

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 267

remain a member while contesting the recommend-
ations of the body. But the academy refused to
accept the resignation, on the very proper ground
that no obKgation was imposed on the members to
support the views of the academy, besides which,
the work of the latter in the whole matter was ter-
minated when its report was presented to Congress.

Although this was true of the academy, it was
not true of the individual members who had taken
part in constructing the scheme. They were natu-
rally desirous of seeing the plan made a success,
and, in the face of such vigorous opposition, this
required constant attention. A dexterous move-
ment was that of getting the measure transferred
from one appropriation bill to another when it
passed over to the Senate. The measure at length
became a law, and thus was estabhshed the Geo-
logical Survey of the United States, which was to
be governed by a Director, appointed by the Presi-
dent, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate.

Then, on March 4, 1879, an important question
arose. The right man must be placed at the head
of the new bureau. Who is he ? At first there
seemed to be but one voice on the subject. Pro-
fessor Hayden had taken the greatest pains to make
known the work of his survey, not only to Congress,
but to every scientific society, small and great, the
world over. Many of these had bestowed their ap-
probation upon it by electing its director to honor-
ary membership. It has been said, I do not know

268 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTEONOMER

how truly, that the number of these testimonials
exceeded that received by any other scientific man
in America. If this were so, they would have to be
counted, not weighed. It was, therefore, not sur-
prising that two thirds of the members of Congress
were said to have sent a recommendation to the
President for the appointment of so able and suc-
cessfid a man to the new position. The powerful
backing of so respectable a citizen as Hon. J. D.
Cox, formerly Secretary of the Interior, was also
heartily proffered. To these forces were added
that of a certain number of geologists, though few
or none of them were leaders in the science. Had
it not been for a private intimation conveyed to
Secretary Schurz that the scientific men interested
might have something to say on the subject, Hay-
den might have been appointed at the very moment
the biU was signed by the President.

Notwithstanding all of Hayden's merits as the
energetic head of a survey, the leaders in the move-
ment considered that Mr. Clarence King was the
better qualified for the duties of the new position.
It is not unhkely that a preference for a different
method of influencing Congress than that which I
have described, was one of the reasons in favor of
Mr. King. He was a man of charming personaUty
and great literary ability. Some one said of him
that he could make a more interesting story out of
what he saw during a ride in a street car than
most men could with the best material at their dis-
posal. His " Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevadas ' '

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 259

was as interesting an account of Western explora-
tion as has ever been pubKshed. I understand it
was suppressed by the author because some of the
characters described in it were much hurt by find-
ing themselves painted in the book.

Hopeless though the contest might have seemed,
an effort was made by three or four of the men
most interested to secure Mr. King's appointment.
If I wanted to show the fallacy of the common im-
pression that scientific men are not fitted for prac-
tical politics, I could not do it better than by giving
the internal history of the movement. This I shall
attempt only in the briefest way. The movers in
the matter divided up the work, did what they
could in the daytime, and met at night at Worm-
ley's Hotel to compare notes, ascertain the effect
of every shot, and decide where the next one should
be fired. As aU the parties concerned in the matter
have now passed off the stage, I shall venture to
mention one of these shots. One eminent geolo-
gist, whose support was known to be available, had
not been called in, because an impression had been
formed that President Hayes would not be willing
to consider favorably what he might say. After
the matter had been discussed at one or two meet-
ings, one of the party proposed to sound the Pre-
sident on the subject at his next interview. So,
when the occasion arose, he gently introduced the
name of the gentleman.

" What view does he take ? " inquired the Presi-
dent.

260 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

" I think he will be favorable to Mr. King," was
the reply ; " but would you give great weight to
his opinion ? "

" I would give great weight to it, very great
weight, indeed," was the reply.

This expression was too decided in its tone to
leave any doubt, and the geologist in question was
on his way to Washington as soon as electricity
could teU him that he was wanted. When the time
finally came for a decision, the President asked Sec-
retary Schurz for his opinion. Both agreed that
King was the man, and he was duly appointed.

The new administration was eminently success-
ful. But King was not fond of administrative
work, and resigned the position at the end of a
year or so. He was succeeded by John W. Powell,
under whom the survey grew with a rapidity which
no one had anticipated. As originally organized,
the survey was one of the territories only, but the
question whether it should not be extended to the
States as well, and prepare a topographical atlas of
the whole country, was soon mooted, and decided
by Congress in the affirmative. For this extension,
however, the original organizers of the survey were
in no way responsible. It was the act of Congress,
pure and simple.

If the success of an organization is to be mea-
sured by the pubUc support which it has com-
manded, by the extension of its work and influence,
and by the gradual dying out of all opposition, it
must be admitted that the plan of the academy

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 261

was a brilliant success. It is true that a serious
crisis had once to be met. While Mr. Cleveland
was governor of New York, his experience with the
survey of that State had led him to distrust the
methods on which the surveys of the United States
were being conducted. This distrust seems to have
pervaded the various heads of the departments un-
der his administration, and led to serious charges
against the conduct of both the Coast and Geolo-
gical surveys. An unfavorable report upon the
administration of the former was made by a com-
mittee especially appointed by the Secretary of the
Treasury, and led to the resignation of its superin-
tendent. But, in the case of the Geological Sur-
vey, the attacks were mostly conducted by the
newspapers. At length. Director Powell asked per-
mission of Secretary Lamar to write him a letter in
reply. His answers were so sweeping, and so con-
clusive on every point, that nothing more was heard
of the criticisms.

The second great work of the academy for the
government was that of devising a forestry system
for the United States. The immediate occasion
for action in this direction was stated by Secretary
Hoke Smith to be the " inadequacy and confusion
of existing laws relating to the pubHc timber lands
and consequent absence of an intelHgent policy in
their administration, resulting in such conditions
as may, if not speedily stopped, prevent the proper
development of a large part of our country."

Even more than in the case of the Geological

262 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Survey might this work seem to be one of admin-
istration rather than of science. But granting
that such was the case, the academy commanded
great advantages in taking up the subject. The
commission which it formed devoted more than a
year to the study, not only of the conditions in our
own country, but of the various policies adopted
by foreign countries, especially Germany, and their
results. As in the case of the Geological Survey,
a radically new and very complete system of for-
estry administration was proposed. Interests hav-
ing other objects than the public good were as
completely ignored as they had been before.

The soundness of the conclusions reached by
the Academy Commission were challenged by men
wielding great political power in their respective
States. For a time it was feared that the academy
would suffer rather than gain in pubHc opinion by
the report it had made. But the moral force be-
hind it was such that, in the long run, some of
the severest critics saw their error, and a plan was
adopted which, though differing in many details
from that proposed, was, in the main, based on the
conclusion of the commission. The Interior De-
partment, the Geological Survey, and the Depart-
ment of Agriculture all have their part in the
work.

Notwithstanding these signal demonstrations of
the valuable service which the academy may ren-
der to the government, the latter has done nothing
for it. , The immediate influence of the leading

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 263

scientific men in public affairs has perhaps been
diminished as much in one direction as it has been
increased in another by the official character of the
organization. The very fact that the members of
the academy belong to a body which is, officially,
the scientific adviser of the government, prevents
them from coming forward to exercise that indi-
vidual influence which they might exercise were
no such body in existence.

The academy has not even a place of meeting,
nor is a repository for its property and records
provided for it. Although it holds in trust large
sums which have been bequeathed from time to
time by its members for promoting scientific inves-
tigation, and is, in this way, rendering an impor-
tant service to the progress of knowledge, it has
practically no income of its own except the con-
tributions of its own members, nearly all of whom
are in the position described by the elder Agassiz,
of having " no time to make money."

Among the men who have filled the office of presi-
dent of the academy, Professor 0. C. Marsh was per-
haps the one whose activity covered the widest field.
Though long well known in scientific circles, he
first came into public prominence by his exposure
of the frauds practiced by contractors in furnish-
ing supplies for the Indians. This business had
fallen into the hands of a small ring of contractors
known as the " Indian ring," who knew the ropes
so well that they could bid below any competitor
and yet manage things so as to gain a handsome

264 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

profit out of the contracts. In the course of his
explorations Marsh took pains to investigate the
whole matter, and published his conclusions first
in the New York " Tribune," and then more fully
in pamphlet form, taking care to have public atten-
tion called to the subject so widely that the author-
ities would have to notice it. In doing so, Mr.
Delano, Secretary of the Interior, spoke of them as
charges made by " a Mr. Marsh." This method
of designating such a man was made effective use
of by Mr. Delano's opponents in the case.

Although the investigation which followed did
not elicit all the facts, it had the result of calling
the attention of succeeding Secretaries of the In-
terior to the necessity of keeping the best outlook
on the administration of Indian affairs. What I
believe to have been the final downfall of the ring
was not brought about until Cleveland's first ad-
ministration. Then it happened in this way. Mr.
Lamar, the Secretary of the Interior, was sharply
on the lookout for frauds of every kind. As
usual, the lowest bid for a certain kind of blanket
had been accepted, and the Secretary was deter-
mined to see whether the articles furnished actually
corresponded with the requirements of the con-
tract. It chanced that he had as his appointment
clerk Mr. J. J. S. Hassler, a former manufacturer
of woolen goods. Mr. Hassler was put on the
board to inspect the supplies, and found that the
blankets, although to all ordinary appearance of the
kind and quality required, were really of a much

SCIENTIFIC "WASHINGTON 265

inferior and cheaper material. The result was the
enforced failure of the contractor, and, I believe,
the end of the Indian ring.

Marsh's explorations in search of fossil remains
of the animals which once roamed over the west-
ern parts of our continent were attended by adven-
tures of great interest, which he long had the
intention of collecting and publishing in book
form. Unfortunately, he never did it, nor, so far
as I am aware, has any connected narrative of his
adventures ever appeared in print. This is more
to be regretted, because they belong to a state of
things which is rapidly passing away, leaving few
records of that lifeHke sort which make the most
impressive picture.

His guide during his early explorations was a
character who has since become celebrated in
America and Europe by the vivid representations
of the "Wild West " with which he has amused and
instructed the dwellers on two continents. Marsh
was on his way to explore the region in the Rocky
Mountains where he was to find the fossils which
have since made his work most celebrated. The
guide was burning with curiosity as to the object
of the expedition. One night over the campfire he
drew his chief into a conversation on the subject.
The latter told him that there was once a time
when the Rocky Mountains did not exist, and that
part of the continent was a level plain. In the
course of long ages mountains rose, and animals
ran over them. Then the mountains split open ;

266 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the animals died and left their bones in the clefts.
The object of his expedition was now to search
for some of these bones.

The bones were duly discovered, and it was not
many years thereafter before the Wild West Ex-
hibition was seen in the principal Eastern cities.
When it visited New Haven, its conductor natu-
rally renewed the acquaintance of his former patron
and supporter.

" Do you remember, professor," said he, " our
talk as we were going on your expedition to the
Rockies, — how you told me about the mountains
rising up and being split open and the bones of
animals being lost in there, and how you were
going to get them ? "

" Oh, yes," said the other, " I remember it very
well."

" Well, professor, do you know, when you told
me aU that I r'aUy thought you was puttin' up a
job on me."

The result was a friendship between the two
men, which continued during Marsh's whole life.
When the one felt that he ought no longer to
spend all the money he earned, he consulted Marsh
on the subject of " salting it down," and doubtless
got good advice.

As an exposer of humbugs Marsh took a pro-
minent place. One of these related to the so-caUed
"Cardiff Giant." Sometime in 1869 the news-
papers announced the discovery in northern New
York, near the Canadian border, of an extraordi-

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 267

nary fossil man, or colossal statue, people were not
sure which, eight or ten feet high. It was found
several feet below the ground while digging a well.
Men of some scientific repute, including even one
so eminent as Professor James Hall, had endorsed
the genuineness of the find, and, on the strength
of this, it was taken around to show the pubKc.
In the course of a journey through New York
State, Marsh happened to pass through the town
where the object was on exhibition. His train
stopped forty minutes for dinner, which would give
him time to drive to the place and back, and leave
a margin of about fifteen minutes for an examina-
tion of the statue. Hardly more than a glance was
necessary to show its fraudulent character. Inside
the ears the marks of a chisel were still plainly vis-
ible, showing that the statue had been newly cut.
One of the most curious features was that the stone
had not been large enough to make the complete
statue, so that the surface was, in one place, still
in the rough. The object had been found in wet
ground. Its material was sulphate of lime, the
slight solubility of which would have been sufficient
to make it dissolve entirely away in the course of
centuries. The absence of any degradation showed
that the thing was comparatively new. On the
strength of this. Marsh promptly denounced the
affair as a humbug. Only a feeble defense was
made for it, and, a year or two later, the whole
story came out. It had been designed and exe-
cuted somewhere in the Northwest, transported to

268 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the place where discovered, and buried, to be after-
ward dug up and reported as a prehistoric wonder.
Only a few years ago the writer had an opportu-
nity of seeing with what wonderful ease intelligent
men can be imposed upon by these artificial antiqui-
ties. The would-be exhibitor of a fossil woman,
found I know not where, appeared in Washington.
He had not discovered the fossil himself, but had
purchased it for some such sum as f 100, on the
assurance of its genuine character. He seems, how-
ever, to have had some misgivings on the subject,
and, being an honest fellow, invited some Washing-
ton scientific men to examine it in advance of a
pubhc exhibition. The first feature to strike the
critical observer was that the arms of the fossil
were crossed over the breast in the most approved
undertaker's fashion, showing that if the woman
had ever existed, she had devoted her dying mo-
ments to arranging a pose for the approval of pos-
terity. Little more than a glance was necessary to
show that the fossil was simply baked clay. Yet
the Hmbs were hard and stiff. One of the specta-
tors therefore asked permission of the owner to
bore with an auger into the leg and see what was
inside. A few moments' work showed that the
bone of the leg was a bar of iron, around which
clay had been moulded and baked. I must do the
crestfallen owner the justice to say that his anxiety
to convince the spectators of his own good faith in
the matter far exceeded his regret at the pecuniary
loss which he had suffered.

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON 269

Another amusing experience that Marsh had
"with a would-he fossil arose out of the discovery
here and there in Connecticut of the fossil foot-
prints of birds. Shortly after a find of this kind
had been announced, a farmer drove his wagon up
in front of the Peabody Museum, called on the
professor, and told him he had dug up something
curious on his farm, and he "wished the professor
would tell him what it was. He thought it looked
like the footprints of a bird in a stone, but he was
not quite sure.

Marsh went out and looked at the stone. A
single glance was enough.

" Oh, I see what they are. They are the foot-
prints of the domestic turkey. And the oddest
part of it is, they are all made "with the right
foot."

The simple-minded countryman, in making the
prints with the turkey's foot, had overlooked the
difEerence between the right and left foot, and the
consequent necessity of having the tracks which
pertained to the two feet alternate.

Washington is naturally a centre of information
on all subjects relating to the aboriginal tribes
of America and to hfe on the plains generally.
Besides the Geological Survey, the Bureau of Eth-
nology has been an active factor in this line. An
o£&cial report cannot properly illustrate life in aU
its aspects, and therefore should be supplemented
by the experiences of leading explorers. This is all

270 THE KEMINISCENCES OP AN ASTKONOMBK

the more necessary if, as seems to be the case, the
peculiar characteristics of the life in question are
being replaced by those more appropriate to civili-
zation. Yet the researches of the bureau in ques-
tion are not carried on in any narrow spirit, and
will supply the future student of humanity with
valuable pictures of the most heroic of all races,
and yet doomed, apparently, to ultimate extinction.
I do not think I ever saw a more impressive human
figure and face than those of Chief Joseph as he
stood tall, erect, and impassive, at a President's
reception in the winter of 1903. He was attired
in all the brilliancy of his official costume ; but not
a muscle of his strongly marked face betrayed the
sentiments with which he must have gazed on the
shining uniforms passing before him.

X

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND

My first trip to Europe, mentioned in the last
chapter, was made with my wife, when the old-
est transatlantic Hne was still the fashionahle one.
The passenger on a Cunarder felt himself amply
compensated for poor attendance, coarse food, and
bad coffee by learning from the officers on the
promenade deck how far the ships of their line
were superior to all others in strength of hull, abil-
ity of captain, and discipline of crew. Things have
changed on both sides since then. Although the
Cunard line has completed its half century without
having lost a passenger, other lines are also care-
fully navigated, and the Cunard passenger, so far
as I know, fares as well as any other. Captain
McMickan was as perfect a type of the old-fash-
ioned captain of the best class as I ever saw. His
face looked as if the gentlest zephyr that had ever
fanned it was an Atlantic hurricane, and yet
beamed with Hibernian good humor and friendliness.
He read prayers so well on Sunday that a passenger
assured him he was born to be a bishop. One day
a ship of the North German Lloyd line was seen
in the offing slowly gaining on us. A passenger
called the captain's attention to the fact that we

272 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

were being left behind. " Oh, they 're very lightly
built, them German ships ; built to carry German
dolls and such like cargo."

In London one of the first men we met was
Thomas Hughes, of Eugby fame, who made us
feel how worthy he was of the love and esteem
bestowed upon him by Americans. He was able
to make our visit pleasant in more ways than one.
Among the men I wanted to see was Mr. John
Stuart Mill, to whom I was attracted not only by
his fame as a philosopher and the interest with
which I had read his books, but also because he
was the author of an excellent pamphlet on the
Union side during our civil war.

On my expressing a desire to make Mr. MiU's
acquaintance, Mr. Hughes immediately offered to
give me a note of introduction. Mill Hved at
Blackheath, which, though in an easterly direction
down the Thames, is one of the prettiest suburbs
of the great metropolis. His dwelling was a very
modest one, entered through a passage of trelHs-
work in a little garden. He was by no means the
grave and distinguished-looking man I had expected
to see. He was small in stature and rather spare,
and did not seem to have markedly intellectual
features. The cordiality of his greeting was more
than I could have expected ; and he was much
pleased to know that his work in moulding English
sentiment in our favor at the commencement of
the civil war was so well remembered and so highly
appreciated across the Atlantic.

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 273

As a philosopher, it must be conceded that Mr.
Mill Hved at an unfortunate time. While his
vigor and independence of thought led him to
break loose from the trammels of the traditional
philosophy, modern scientific generalization had
not yet reached a stage favorable to his becoming
a leader in developing the new philosophy. Still,
whatever may be the merits of his philosophic
theories, I believe that up to a quite recent time
no work on scientific method appeared worthy to
displace his " System of Logic."

A feature of London life that must strongly im-
press the scientific student from our country is the
closeness of touch, socially as well as officially, be-
tween the Hterary and scientific classes on the one
side and the governing classes on the other. Mr.
Hughes invited us to make an evening call with
him at the house of a cabinet minister, — I think
it was Mr. Goschen, — where we should find a
number of persons worth seeing. Among those
gathered in this casual way were Mr. Gladstone,
Dean Stanley, and our General Burnside, then
grown quite gray. I had never before met Gen-
eral Burnside, but his published portraits were so
characteristic that the man could scarcely have
been mistaken. The only change was in the color
of his beard. Then and later I found that a
pleasant feature of these informal " at homes," so
universal in London, is that one meets so many
people he wants to see, and so few he does not
want to see.

274 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Congress had made a very liberal appropriation
for observations of the solar eclipse, — the mak-
ing of which was one object of my visit, — to be
expended under the direction of Professor Peirce,
superintendent of the Coast Survey. Peirce went
over in person to take charge of the arrangements.
He arrived in London with several members of his
party a few days before we did, and about the
same time came an independent party of my fellow
astronomers from the Naval Observatory, consist-
ing of Professors Hall, Harkness, and Eastman.
The invasion of their country by such an army of
American astronomers quite stirred up our English
colleagues, who sorrowfully contrasted the liberality
of our government with the parsimony of their own,
which had, they said, declined to make any pro-
vision for the observations of the echpse. Con-
sidering that it was visible on their own side of the
Atlantic, they thought their government might
take a lesson from ours. Of course we could not
help them directly; and yet I suspect that our
coming, or at least the coming of Peirce, really
did help them a great deal. At any rate, it was a
curious coincidence that no sooner did the Ameri-
can invasion occur than it was semi-of&cially dis-
covered that no application of which her Majesty's
government could take cognizance had been made
by the scientific authorities for a grant of money
with which to make preparations for observing the
eclipse. That the scientific authorities were not
long in catching so broad a hint as this goes with-

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 275

out saying. A Kttle more of the story came out a
few days later in a very unexpected way.

In scientific England, the great social event of
the year is the annual banquet of the Royal Society,
held on St. Andrew's day, the date of the annual
meeting of the society, and of the award of its
medals for distinguished work in science. At the
banquet the scientific outlook is discussed not only
by members of the society, but by men high in
political and social life. The medalists are toasted,
if they are present ; and their praises are sung, if,
as is apt to be the case with foreigners, they are
absent. First in rank is the Copley medal, founded
by Sir Godfrey Copley, a contemporary of Newton.
This medal has been awarded annually since 1731,
and is now considered the highest honor that sci-
entific England has to bestow. The recipient is
selected with entire impartiality as to country, not
for any special work published during the year, but
in view of the general merit of all that he has
done. Five times in its history the medal has
crossed the Atlantic. It was awarded to Franklin
in 1753, Agassiz in 1861, Dana in 1877, and J.
WiUard Gibbs in 1902. The long time that elapsed
between the first and the second of these awards
affords an illustration of the backwardness of scien-
tific research in America during the greater part
of the first century of our independence. The
year of my visit the medal was awarded to Mr.
Joule, the English physicist, for his work on the
relation of heat and energy.

276 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

I was a guest at the banquet, which was the
most brilliant function I had witnessed up to that
time. The leaders ia English science and learning
sat around the table. Her Majesty's government
was represented by Mr. Gladstone, the Premier,
and Mr. Lowe, afterward Viscount Sherbrooke,
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Both replied to
toasts. Mr. Lowe as a speaker was perhaps a little
dull, but not so Mr. Gladstone. There was a charm
about the way in which his talk seemed to display
the inner man. It could not be said that he had
either the dry humor of Mr. Evarts or the wit of
Mr. Depew ; but these qualities were well replaced
by the vivacity of his manner and the intellectu-
aUty of his face. He looked as i£ he had some-
thing interesting he wanted to teU you; and he
proceeded to tell it in a very felicitous way as re-
garded both manner and language, but without
anything that savored of eloquence. He was like
Carl Schurz in talking as if he wanted to inform
you, and not because he wanted you to see what a
fine speaker he was. With this he impressed one
as having a perfect command of his subject in all
its bearings.

I did not for a moment suppose that the Premier
of England could have taken any personal interest
in the matter of the eclipse. Great, therefore, was
my surprise when, in speaking of the relations of
the government to science, he began to talk about
the coming event. I quote a passage from memory,
after twenty-seven years : " I had the pleasure of

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 277

a visit, a few days since, from a very distinguished
American professor. Professor Peirce of Harvard.
In the course of the interview, the learned gentle-
man expressed his regret that her Majesty's gov-
ernment had declined to take any measures to
promote observations of the coming eclipse of the
sun by British astronomers. I replied that I was
not aware that the government had declined to
take such measures. Indeed, I went further, and
assured him that any application from our astron-
omers for aid in making these observations would
receive respectful consideration." I felt that there
might be room for some suspicion that this visit of
Professor Peirce was a not unimportant factor in
the changed position of affairs as regarded British
observations of the eclipse.

Not only the scene I have described, but subse-
quent experience, has impressed me with the high
appreciation in which the best scientific work is
held by the leading countries of Europe, especially
England and France, as if the prosecution were
something of national importance which men of
the highest rank thought it an honor to take part
in. The Marquis of Salisbury, in an interval be-
tween two terms of service as Premier of England,
presided over the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, and delivered an address
showing a wide and careful study of the general-
izations of modern science.

In France, also, one great glory of the nation is
felt to be the works of its scientific and learned

278 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

men of the past and present. Membership of one
of the five academies of the Institute of France
is counted among the highest honors to which a
Frenchman can aspire. Most remarkable, too, is
the extent to which other considerations than that
of merit are set aside in selecting candidates for
this honor. Quite recently a man was elected a
member of the Academy of Sciences who was
without either university or of&cial position, and
earned a modest subsistence as a collaborator of
the " Eevue des Deux Mondes." But he had
found time to make investigations in mathemati-
cal astronomy of such merit that he was con-
sidered to have fairly earned this distinction, and
the modesty of his social position did not lie in
his way.

At the time of this visit Lister was an eminent
member of the medical profession, but had not, so
far as I am aware, been recognized as one who was
to render incalculable service to suffering humanity.
From a professional point of view there are no two
walks in life having fewer points of contact than
those of the surgeon and the astronomer. It is
therefore a remarkable example of the closeness of
touch among eminent Englishmen in every walk
of life, that, in subsequent visits, I was repeatedly
thrown into contact with one who may fairly be
recommended as among the greatest benefactors of
the human race that the nineteenth century has
given us. This was partly, but not wholly, due to

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 279

his being, for several years, the president of the
Royal Society. I would wiUingly say much more,
but I am unable to write authoritatively upon the
life and work of such a man, and must leave gossip
to the daily press.

For the visiting astronomer at London scarcely
a place in London has more attractions than the
modest little observatory and dwelling house on
Upper Tulse HiU, in which Sir William Huggins
has done so much to develop the spectroscopy of
the fixed stars. The owner of this charming place
was a pioneer in the application of the spectroscope
to the analysis of the light of the heavenly bodies,
and after nearly forty years of work in this field,
is still pursuing his researches. The charm of sen-
timent is added to the cold atmosphere of science
by the collaboration of Lady Huggins. Almost
at the beginning of his work Mr. Huggins, analyz-
ing the light of the great nebula of Orion, showed
that it must proceed from a mass of gas, and not
from solid matter, thus making the greatest step
possible in our knowledge of these objects. He
was also the first to make actual measures of the
motions of bright stars to or from our system by
observing the wave length of the rays of hght
which they absorbed. Quite recently an illustrated
account of his observatory and its work has ap-
peared in a splendid folio volume, in which the
rigor of science is tempered with a gentle infusion
of art which tempts even the non-scientific reader
to linger over its pages.

280 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

In England, the career of Professor Cayley af-
fords an example of the spirit that impels a scien-
tific worker of the highest class, and of the extent
to which an enlightened community may honor
him for what he is doing. One of the creators of
modern mathematics, he never had any ambition
beyond the prosecution of his favorite science. I
first met him at a dinner of the Astronomical
Society Club. As the guests were taking off their
wraps and assembling in the anteroom, I noticed,
with some surprise, that one whom I supposed to
be an attendant was talking with them on easy
terms. A moment later the supposed attendant
was introduced as Professor Cayley. His garb set
off the seeming haggardness of his keen features
so effectively that I thought him either broken
down in health or just recovering from some pro-
tracted illness. The unspoken words on my lips
were, " Why, Professor Cayley, what has happened
to you ? " Being now in the confessional, I must
own that I did not, at the moment, recognise the
marked intellectuality of a very striking face. As
a representation of a mathematician in the throes
of thought, I know nothing to equal his portrait
by Dickenson, which now hangs in the hall of
Trinity College, Cambridge, and is reproduced in
the sixth volume of Cayley's collected works. His
life was that of a man moved to investigation by
an uncontrollable impulse ; the only sort of man
whose work is destined to be imperishable. Until
forty years of age he was by profession a convey-

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 281

ancer. His ability was such that he might have
gained a fortune by practicing the highest branch
of English law, if his energies had not been di-
verted in another direction. The spirit in which
he pursued his work may be judged from an anec-
dote related by his friend and co-worker, Sylves-
ter, who, in speaking of Cayley's even and placid
temper, told me that he had never seen him ruffled
but once. Entering his office one morning, intent
on some new mathematical thought which he was
discussing with Sylvester, he opened the letter-box
in his door and found a bundle of papers relating
to a law case which he was asked to take up.
The interruption was too much. He flung the pa-
pers on the table with remarks more forcible than
complimentary concerning the person who had
distracted his attention at such an inopportune
moment. In 1863 he was made a professor at
Cambridge, where, no longer troubled with the
intricacies of land tenure, he pubHshed one inves-
tigation after another with ceaseless activity, to the
end of his Ufe.

Among my most interesting callers was Professor
John C. Adams, of whom I have spoken as sharing
with Leverrier the honor of having computed the
position of the planet Neptune before its existence
was otherwise known. The work of the two men
was prosecuted at almost the same time, but adopt-
ing the principle that priority of publication should
be the sole basis of credit, Arago had declared that
no other name than that of Leverrier should even

282 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

be mentioned in connection with the work. If re-
pute was correct, Leverrier was not distinguished
for those amiable qualities that commonly mark
the man of science and learning. His attitude
toward Adams had always been hostile. Under
these conditions chance afforded the latter a splen-
did opportunity of showing his superiority to all
personal feeling. He was president of the Royal
Astronomical Society when its annual medal was
awarded to his French rival for his work in con-
structing new tables of the sun and planets. It
thus became his duty to deUver the address setting
forth the reasons for the award. He did this with
a warmth of praise foir Leverrier's works which
could not have been exceeded had the two men
been bosom friends.

Adams's intellect was one of the keenest I ever
knew. The most difficult problems of mathemati-
cal astronomy and the most recondite principles
that underlie the theory of the celestial motions
were to him but child's play. His works place him
among the first mathematical astronomers of the
age, and yet they do not seem to do his ability
entire justice. Indeed, for fifteen years previous
to the time of my visit his pubHshed writings had
been rather meagre. But I believe he was justly
credited with an elaborate witticism to the follow-
ing effect : " In view of the fact that the only
human being ever known to have been killed by a
meteorite was a monk, we may concede that after
four hundred years the Pope's bull against the

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 283

comet has been justified by the discovery that
comets are made up of meteorites."

Those readers who know on what imperfect data
men's impressions are sometimes founded will not
be surprised to learn of my impression that an
Englishman's politics could be inferred from his
mental and social make-up. If all men are born
either AristoteUans or Platonists, then it may be
supposed that all Enghshmen are born Conserva-
tives or Liberals.

The utterances of English journalists of the Con-
servative party about American affairs during and
after our civil war had not impressed me with the
idea that one so unfortunate as to be born in that
party would either take much interest in meeting
an American or be capable of taking an apprecia-
tive view of scientific progress. So confident was
I of my theory that I remarked to a friend with
whom I had become somewhat intimate, that no
one who knew Mr. Adams could have much doubt
that he was a Liberal in politics.

An embarrassed smile spread over the friend's
features. " You would not make that conclusion
knovm to Mr. Adams, I hope," said he.

" But is he not a Liberal ? "

" He is not only a Conservative, but declares
himself ' a Tory of the Tories.' "

I afterward found that he fully justified his own
description. At the university, he was one of the
leading opponents of those measures which freed
the academic degrees from religious tests. He was

284 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

said to have been among those who objected to
Sylvester, a Jew, receiving a degree.

I had decided to observe the eclipse at Gibraltar.
In order that my results, if I obtained any, might
be utilized in the best way, it was necessary that
the longitude of the station should be determined
by telegraph. This had never been done for Gib-
raltar. How great the error of the supposed lon-
gitude might have been may be inferred from the
fact that a few years later, Captain F. Green of
the United States Navy found the longitude of
Lisbon on the Admiralty charts to be two miles in
error. The first arrangements I had to make in
England were directed to this end. Considering
the relation of the world's great fortress to British
maritime supremacy, it does seem as if there were
something presumptuous in the coolness with which
I went among the authorities to make arrangements
for the enterprise. Nevertheless, the authorities
permitted the work, with a cordiality which was of
itself quite sufficient to remove any such impression,
had it been entertained. The astronomers did, in-
deed, profess to feel it humiliating that the longi-
tude of such a place as Gibraltar should have to be
.determined from Greenwich by an American. They
did not say " by a foreigner," because they always
protested against Americans looking upon them-
selves as such. StiU, it would not be an English
enterprise if an American carried it out. I suspect,
however, that my proceedings were not looked upon

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 285

•with entire dissatisfaction even by the astronomers.
They might prove as good a stimulant to their gov-
ernment in showing a little more enterprise in that
direction as the arrival of our eclipse party did.

The longitude work naturally took me to the
Eoyal Observatory which has made the little town
of Greenwich so famous. It is situated some eight
miles east from Charing Cross, on a hill in Green-
wich Park, with a pleasant outlook toward the
Thames. From my youth up I had been working
with its observations, and there was no institution
in the world which I had approached, or could ap-
proach, with the interest I felt in ascending the
little hill on which it is situated. When the Calabria
was once free from her wharf in New York harbor,
and on her way down the Narrows, the foremost
thought was, " Off for Europe ; we shall see Green-
wich ! " The day of my arrival in London I had
written to Professor Airy, and received an answer
the same evening, inviting us to visit the observa-
tory and spend an afternoon with him a day or
two later.

I was shown around the observatory by an assist-
ant, while my wife was entertained by Mrs. Airy
and the daughters inside the dwelhng. The fam-
ily dined as soon as the day's work was over, about
the middle of the afternoon. After the meal, we
sat over a blazing fire and discussed our impres-
sions of London.

" What place in London interested you most ? "
said Airy to my wife.

286 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

" The first place I went to see was Cavendish
Square."

" What was there in Cavendish Square to inter-
est you ? "

" When I was a little girl, my mother once
gave me, as a birthday present, a small volume of
poems. The first verse in the book was : —

" ' Little Ann and her mother were walking one day
Through London's wide city so fair ;
And business obliged them to go by the way
That led them through Cavendish Square.' "

To our astonishment the Astronomer Royal at
once took up the thread : —

" 'And as they passed by the great house of a lord,
A beautiful chariot there came,
To take some most elegant ladies abroad,
Who straightway got into the same,' "

and went on to the end. I do not know which
of the two was more surprised : Airy, to find an
American woman who was interested in his favor-
ite ballad, or she to find that he could repeat it
by heart. The incident was the commencement of
a family friendship which has outlived both the
heads of the Airy family.

We may look back on Airy as the most com-
manding figure in the astronomy of our time. He
owes this position not only to his early works in
mathematical astronomy, but also to his ability as
an organizer. Before his time the working force
of an observatory generally consisted of individual
observers, each of whom worked to a greater or

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 287

less extent in his own way. It is true that or-
ganization was not unknown in such institutions.
Nominally, at least, the assistants in a national ob-
servatory were supposed to follow the instructions
of a directing head. This was especially the case
at Greenwich. StiU, great dependence was placed
upon the judgment and ability of the observer
himself, who was generally expected to be a man
well trained in his specialty, and able to carry on
good work without much help. From Airy's point
of view, it was seen that a large part of the work
necessary to the attainment of the traditional end
of the Royal Observatory was of a kind that al-
most any bright schoolboy coidd learn to do in a
few weeks, and that in most of the remaining part
plodding industry, properly directed, was more im-
portant than scientific training. He could himself
work out all the mathematical formulae and write
all the instructions required to keep a small army
of observers and computers employed, and could
then train in his methods a few able lieutenants,
who would see that all the details were properly
executed. Under these lieutenants was a grade
comprising men of sufficient technical education to
enable them to learn how to point the telescope,
record a transit, and perform the other technical
operations necessary in an astronomical observa-
tion. A third grade was that of computers : in-
genious youth, quick at figures, ready to work for
a compensation which an American laborer would
despise, yet weU enough schooled to make simple

288 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMEE

calculations. Under the new system they needed
to understand only the four rules of arithmetic ;
indeed, so far as possible Airy arranged his calcu-
lations in such a way that subtraction and division
were rarely required. His boys had little more to
do than add and multiply. Thus, so far as the
doing of work was concerned, he introduced the
same sort of improvement that our times have
witnessed in great manufacturing establishments,
where labor is so organized that unskilled men
bring about results that formerly demanded a high
grade of technical abUity. He introduced produc-
tion on a large scale into astronomy.

At the time of my visit, it was much the fashion
among astronomers elsewhere to speak sUghtingly
of the Greenwich system. The objections to it
were, in substance, the same that have been made
to the minute subdivision of labor. The intellect
of the individual was stunted for the benefit of the
work. The astronomer became a mere operative.
Yet it must be admitted that the astronomical work
done at Greenwich during the sixty years since
Airy introduced his system has a value and an im-
portance in its specialty that none done elsewhere
can exceed. All future conclusions as to the laws
of motion of the heavenly bodies must depend
largely upon it.

The organization of his little army necessarily
involved a corresponding change in the instruments
they were to use. Before his time the trained as-
tronomer worked with instruments of very delicate

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 289

construction, so that skill in handling them was
one of the requisites of an observer. Airy made
them in the likeness of heavy machinery, which
could suffer no injury from a blow of the head of
a careless observer. Strong and simple, they rarely
got out of order. It is said that an assistant who
showed a visiting astronomer the transit circle some-
times hit it a good slap to show how soHd it was ;
but this was not done on the present occasion.
The little army had its weekly marching orders and
made daily reports of progress to its commander,
who was thus enabled to control the minutest de-
tail of every movement.

In the course of the evening Airy gave me a
lesson in method, which was equally instructive and
entertaining. In order to determine the longitude
of Gibraltar, it was necessary that time signals
should be sent by telegraph from the Royal Obser-
vatory. Our conversation naturally led us into a
discussion of the general subject of such operations.
I told him of the difficulties we had experienced
in determining a telegraphic longitude, — that of
the Harvard Observatory from Washington, for
example, — because it was only after a great deal
of talking and arranging on the evening of the
observation that the various telegraph stations be-
tween the two points could have their connections
successfully made at the same moment. At the
appointed hour the Washington operator would be
talking with the others, to know if they were ready,
and so a general discussion about the arrangements

290 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

might go on for half an hour before the connec-
tions were all reported good. If we had such
trouble in a land line, how should we get a con-
nection from London to the Gibraltar cable through
lines in constant use ?

" But," said Airy, " I never allow an operator
who can speak with the instruments to take part
in determining a telegraphic longitude."

" Then how can you get the connections all
made from one end of the line to the other, at the
same moment, if your operators cannot talk to one
another ? "

"Nothing is simpler. I fix in advance a mo-
ment, say eight o'clock Greenwich mean time, at
which signals are to commence. Every intermedi-
ate office through which the signals are to pass is
instructed to have its wires connected in both di-
rections exactly at the given hour, and to leave
them so connected for ten minutes, without asking
any further instructions. At the end of the line
the instruments must be prepared at the appointed
hour to receive the signals. All I have to do here
is to place my clock in the circuit and send on
the signals for ten minutes, commencing at eight
o'clock. They are recorded at the other end of
the line without further trouble."

" But have you never met with a failure to un-
derstand the instructions ? "

" No ; they are too simple to be mistaken, once
it is understood that no one has anything to do
but make his connections at the designated mo-

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 291

ment, ■without asking whether any one else is
ready."

Airy was noted not less for his ability as an
organizer than for his methodical habits. The
care with which he preserved every record led Sir
WiUiam Rowan Hamilton to say that when Airy
wiped his pen on a blotter, he fancied him as al-
ways taking a press copy of the mark. His ma-
chinery seemed to work perfectly, whether it was
constructed of flesh or of brass. He could pre-
pare instructions for the most complicated piece of
work with such effective provision against every
accident and such completeness in every detail that
the work would go on for years without further
serious attention from him. The instruments
which he designed half a century ago are mostly
in use to this day, with scarcely an alteration.

Yet there is some reason to fear that Airy car-
ried method a little too far to get the best results.
Of late years his system has been greatly changed,
even at Greenwich. It was always questionable
whether so rigid a military routine could accom-
plish the best that was possible in astronomy ; and
Airy himself, during his later years, modified his
plan by trying to secure trained scientific men as
his assistants, giving them liberty to combine in-
dependent research, on their own account, with
the work of the establishment. His successor has
gone farther in the same direction, and is now
gathering around him a corps of young university
men, from whose ability much may be expected.

292 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

Observations with the spectroscope have been pur-
sued, and the observatory has taken a prominent
part in the international work of making a photo-
graphic map of the heavens. Of special impor-
tance are the regidar discussions of photographs of
the sun, taken in order to determine the law of
the variation of the spots. The advantage of the
regular system which has been followed for more
than fifty years is seen in the meteorological obser-
vations ; these disprove some theories of the rela-
tion between the sun and the weather, in a way
that no other set of meteorological records has
done. While delicate determinations of the high-
est precision, such as those made at Polkova, are
not yet undertaken to any great extent, a regular
even if slow improvement is going on in the gen-
eral character of the observations and researches,
which must bear fruit in due time.

One of the curious facts we learned at Green-
wich was that astronomy was still supposed to be
astrology by many in England. That a belief in
astrology should survive was perhaps not remark-
able, though I do not remember to have seen any
evidence of it in this country. But applications
received at the Eoyal Observatory, from time to
time, showed a widespread belief among the masses
that one of the functions of the astronomer royal
was the casting of horoscopes.

We went to Edinburgh. Our first visit was to
the observatory, then under the direction of Pro-

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 293

fessor C. Piazzi Smyth, who was also an Egyptolo-
gist of repute, having made careful measurements
of the Pyramids, and brought out some new facts
regarding their construction. He was thus led to
the conclusion that they bore marks of having been
built by a people of more advanced civilization
than was generally supposed, — so advanced, in-
deed, that we had not yet caught up to them in
scientific investigation. These views were set forth
with great fullness in his work on " The Antiquity
of Intellectual Man," as well as in other volumes
describing his researches. He maintained that the
builders of the Pyramids knew the distance of the
sun rather better than we did, and that the height
of the Great Pyramid had been so arranged that if
it was multiplied by a thousand millions we should
get this distance more exactly than we could mea-
sure it in these degenerate days. With him, to be-
lieve in the Pyramid was to believe this, and a great
deal more about the civilization which it proved.
So, when he asked me whether I believed in the
Pyramid, I told him that I did not think I would
depend wholly upon the Pyramid for the distance
of the sun to be used in astronomy, but should
want its indications at least confirmed by modern
researches. The hint was sufficient, and I was not
further pressed for views on this subject.

He introduced us to Lady Hamilton, widow of
the celebrated philosopher, who still held court at
Edinburgh. The daughter of the family was in
repute as a metaphysician. This was interesting,

294 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

because I had never before heard of a female
metaphysician, although there were several cases of
female mathematicians recorded in history. First
among them was Donna Maria Agnesi, who wrote
one of the best eighteenth-century books on the
calculus, and had a special dispensation from the
Pope to teach mathematics at Bologna. We were
therefore very glad to accept an invitation from
Lady Hamilton to spend an evening with a few
of her friends. Her rooms were fairly filled with
books, the legacy of one of whom it was said that
" scarcely a thought has come down to us through
the ages which he has not mastered and made his
own."

The few guests were mostly university people
and philosophers. The most interesting of them
was Professor Blackie, the Grecian scholar, who
was the Uveliest little man of sixty I ever saw;
amusing us by singing German songs, and dancing
about the room Kke a sprightly child among its
playmates. I talked with Miss Hamilton about
Mill, whose " Examination of Sir William Hamilton's
Philosophy " was still fresh in men's minds. Of
course she did not beheve in this book, and said
that Mill could not understand her father's philoso-
phy. With all her intellect, she was a fine healthy-
looking young lady, and it was a sad surprise, a
few years later, to hear of her death. Madame
Sophie Kovalevsky afterward appeared on the stage
as the first female mathematician of our time, but
it may be feared that the woman philosopher died
with Miss Hamilton.

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 295

A large party of English astronomers were go-
ing to Algeria to observe the eclipse. The govern-
ment had fitted up a naval transport for their use,
and as I was arranging for a passage on a ship of
the Peninsular and Oriental Line we received an in-
vitation to become the guests of the English party.
Among those on board were Professor Tyndall ; Mr.
Huggins, the spectroscopist ; Sir Erastus Ommaney,
a retired English admiral, and a fellow of the Eoyal
Society ; Father Perry, S. J., a well-known astron-
omer ; and Lieutenant Wharton, who afterward be-
came hydrographer to the Admiralty.

The sprightliest man on board was Professor
Tyndall. He made up for the absence of moun-
tains by climbing to every part of the ship he could
reach. One day he. climbed the shrouds to the
maintop, and stood surveying the scene as i£ look-
ing out from the top of the Matterhorn. A sailor
followed him, and drew a chalk-line around his
feet. I assume the reader knows what this means ;
if he does not, he can learn by straying into the
sailors' quarters the first time he is on board an
ocean steamer. But the professor absolutely re-
fused to take the hint.

We had a rather rough passage, from which
Father Perry was the greatest sufferer. One day
he heard a laugh from the only lady on board, who
was in the adjoiaing stateroom. " Who can laugh
at such a time as this ! " he exclaimed. He made
a vow that he would never go on the ocean again,
even if the sun and moon fought for a month. But

296 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the VOWS of a seasick passenger are forgotten sooner
than any others I know of ; and it was only f om-
years later that Father Perry made a voyage to
Kerguelen Island, in the stormiest ocean on the
globe, to observe a transit of Venus.

Off the coast of Spain, the leading chains of the
rudder got loose, during a gale in the middle of
the night, and the steering apparatus had to be
disconnected in order to tighten them. The ship
veered round into the trough of the sea, and rolled
so heavily that a table, twenty or thirty feet long,
in the saloon, broke from its fastenings, and began
to dance around the cabin with such a racket that
some of the passengers feared for the safety of the
ship.

Just how much of a storm there was I cannot
say, believing that it is never worth while for a
passenger to leave his berth, if there is any danger
of a ship foundering in a gale. But in Professor
Tyndall's opinion we had a narrow escape. On ar-
riving at Gibraltar, he wrote a glowing account of
the storm to the London Times, in which he de-
scribed the feelings of a philosopher while standing
on the stern of a rolling ship in an ocean storm,
without quite knowing whether she was going to
sink or swim. The letter was anonymous, which
gave Admiral Ommaney an excellent opportunity
to write as caustic a reply as he chose, undear the
signature of " A Naval Officer." He said that
sailor was fortunate who could arrange with the
clerk of the weather never to have a worse storm

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 297

in crossing the Bay of Biscay than the one we had
experienced.

We touched at Cadiz, and anchored for a few
hours, but did not go ashore. The Brooklyn, an
American man-of-war, was in the harbor, but there
was no opportunity to communicate with her, though
I knew a friend of mine was on board.

Gibraltar is the greatest babel in the world, or,
at least, the greatest I know. I wrote home : " The
principal languages spoken at this hotel are Eng^
lish, Spanish, Moorish, French, Italian, German,
and Danish. I do not know what languages they
speak at the other hotels." Moorish and Spanish
are the local tongues, and of course English is the
official one ; but the traders and commercial travel-
ers speak nearly every language one ever heard.

I hired a Moor — who bore some title which in-
dicated that he was a descendant of the Caliphs,
and by which he had to be addressed — to do
chores and act as general assistant. One of the
first things I did, the morning after my arrival, was
to choose a convenient point on one of the stone
parapets for " taking the sun," in order to test the
running of my chronometer. I had some suspicion
as to the result, but was willing to be amused. A
sentinel speedily informed me that no sights were
allowed to be taken on the fortification. I told
him I was taking sights on the sun, not on the
fortification. But he was inexorable ; the rule was
that no sights of any sort could be taken without
a permit. I soon learned from Mr. Sprague, the

298 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

American consul, who the proper officer was to
issue the permit, which I was assured would be
granted without the sKghtest difficulty.

The consul presented me to the military gov-
ernor of the place. General Sir Fenwick Williams
of Kars. I did not know till long afterward that
he was born very near where I was. He was a
man whom it was very interesting to meet. His
heroic defense of the town whose name was added
to his own as a part of his title was still fresh in
men's minds. It had won him the order of the
Bath in England, the Grand Cross of the Legion
of Honor and a sword from Napoleon HI., and the
usual number of lesser distinctions. The military
governor, the sole authority and viceroy of the
Queen in the fortress, is treated with the deference
due to an exalted personage ; but this deference so
sti-engthens the dignity of the position that the
holder may be frank and hearty at his own plea-
sure, without danger of impairing it. Certainly,
we found Sir Fenwick a most genial and charm-
ing gentleman. The Alabama claims were then
in their acute stage, and he expressed the earnest
hope that the two nations would not proceed to
cutting each other's throats over them.

There was no need of troubling the governor with
such a detail as that of a permit to take sights ; but
the consul ventured to relate my experience of the
morning. He took the information in a way which
showed that England, in making him a general,
had lost a good diplomatist. Instead of treating

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 299

the matter seriously, which would have impHed
that we did not fuUy understand the situation, he
professed to be greatly amused, and said it reminded
him of the case of an old lady in " Punch" who
had to pass a surveyor in the street, behind a theo-
dolite. " Please, sir, don't shoot till I get past,"
she begged.

Before leaving England, I had made very elabo-
ate arrangements, both with the Astronomer Royal
and with the telegraph companies, to determine
the longitude of Gibraltar by telegraphic signals.
The most difificult part of the operation was the
transfer of the signals from the end of the land
line into the cable, which had to be done by hand,
because the cable companies were not wilHng to
trust to an automatic action of any sort between
the land line and the cable. It was therefore
necessary to show the operator at the point of
junction how signals were to be transmitted. This
required a journey to Port Curno, at the very end
of the Land's End, several miles beyond the termi-
nus of the railway. It was the most old-time place
I ever saw; one might have imagined himself
thrown back into the days of the Lancasters. The
thatched inn had a hard stone floor, with a layer
of loose sand scattered over it as a carpet in the
bedroom. My linguistic qualities were put to a
severe test in talking with the landlady. But the
cable operators were pleasing and intelligent yoxmg
gentlemen, and I had no difficulty in making them
understand how the work was to be done.

300 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

The manager of the cable was Sir James Ander-
son, who had formerly commanded a Cunard steam-
ship from Boston, and was weU known to the Har-
vard professors, with whom he was a favorite. I
had met him, or at least seen him, at a meeting
of the American Academy ten years before, where
he was introduced by one of his Harvard friends.
After commanding the ship that laid the first Atlan-
tic cable, he was made manager of the cable line
from England to Gibraltar. He gave me a letter
to the head operator at Gibraltar, the celebrated
de Sauty.

I say " the celebrated," but may it not be that
this appellation can only suggest the vanity of all
human greatness ? It just occurs to me that many
of the present generation may not even have heard
of the —

Whispering Boanerges, son of silent thunder,
Holding talk with nations,

immortalized by Holmes in one of his humorously
scientific poems. During the two short weeks that
the first Atlantic cable transmitted its signals, his
fame spread over the land, for the moment obscur-
ing by its brilliancy that of Thomson, Field, and
all others who had taken part in designing and lay-
ing the cable. On the breaking down of the cable
he lapsed into his former obscurity. I asked him
if he had ever seen Holmes's production. He re-
plied that he had received a copy of " The Atlantic
Monthly " containing it from the poet himself, ac-
companied by a note saying that he might find in

SCIENTIFIC ENGLAND 301

it something of interest. He had been overwhehned
with invitations to continue his journey from New-
foundland to the United States and lecture on the
cable, but was sensible enough to decline them.

The rest of the story of the telegraphic longi-
tude is short. The first news which de Sauty had
to give me was that the cable was broken, — just
where, he did not know, and would not be able
soon to discover. After the break was located,
an unknoAvn period would be required to raise the
cable, find the place, and repair the breach. The
weather, on the day of the eclipse, was more than
half cloudy, so that I did not succeed in making
observations of such value as would justify my
waiting indefinitely for the repair of the cable, and
the project of determining the longitude had to be
abandoned.

XI

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE

We went from Gibraltar to Berlin in January
by way of Italy. The Mediterranean is a charm-
ing sea in summer, but in winter is a good deal
like the Atlantic. The cause of the blueness of its
water is not completely settled ; but its sharing this
color with Lake Geneva, which is tinged with de-
tritus from the shore, might lead one to ascribe it
to substances held in solution. The color is notice-
able even in the harbor of Malta, to which we had
a pleasant though not very smooth passage of five
days.

Here was our first experience of an Italian town
of a generation ago. I had no sooner started to
take a walk than a so-called guide, who spoke what
he thought was English, got on my track, and in-
sisted on showing me everything. If I started to-
ward a shop, he ran in before me, invited me in,
asked what I would like to buy, and told the shop-
man to show the gentleman something. I could
not get rid of him till I returned to the hotel, and
then he had the audacity to want a fee for his
services. I do not think he got it. Everything
of interest was easily seen, and we only stopped

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 303

to take the first Italian steamer to Messina. We
touched at Syracuse and Catania, but did not land.

^tna, from the sea, is one of the grandest sights
I ever saw. Its snow-covered cone seems to rise
on all sides out of the sea or the plain, and to
penetrate the blue sky. In this it gives an impres-
sion like that of the Weisshorn seen from Eanda,
but gains by its isolation.

At Messina, of course, our steamer was visited by
a commission naire, who asked me in good English
whether I wanted a hotel. I told him that I had
already decided upon a hotel, and therefore did
not need his services. But it turned out that he
belonged to the very hotel I was going to, and was
withal an American, a native-born Yankee, in fact,
and so obviously honest that I placed myself unre-
servedly in his hands, — something which I never
did with one of his profession before or since.
He said the first thing was to get our baggage
through the custom-house, which he could do with-
out any trouble, at the cost of a franc. He was
as good as his word. The Italian custom-house
was marked by primitive rigor, and baggage was
commonly subjected to a very thorough search.
But my man was evidently well known and fully
trusted. I was asked to raise the Ud of one trunk,
which I did ; the official looked at it, with his hands
in his pockets, gave a nod,. and the affair was over.
My Yankee friend collected one franc for that part
of the business. He told us all about the place,
changed our money so as to take advantage of the

304 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

premium on gold, and altogether looked out for
our interests in a way to do honor to his tribe. I
thought there might be some curious story of the
way in which a New Englander of such qualities
could have dropped into such a place, but it will
have to be left to imagination.

We reached the Bay of Naples in the morning
twilight, after making an unsuccessful attempt to
locate ScyUa and Charybdis. If they ever existed,
they must have disappeared. Vesuvius was now
and then lighting up the clouds with its intermit-
tent flame. But we had passed a most uncomfort-
able night, and the morning was wet and chilly.
A view requires something more than the objective
to make it appreciated, and the efEect of a rough
voyage and bad weather was such as to deprive of
all its beauty what is considered one of the finest
views in the world. Moreover, the experience made
me so ill-natured that I was determined that the
custom-house officer at the landing should have no
fee from me. The only article that could have
been subject to duty was on top of everything in
the trunk, except a single covering of some loose
garment, so that only a touch was necessary to find
it. When it came to the examination, the officer
threw the top till contemptuously aside, and devoted
himself to a thorough search of the bottom. The
only imusual object he stumbled upon was a spy-
glass inclosed in a shield of morocco. Perhaps a
gesture and a remark on my part aroused his sus-
picions. He opened the glass, tried to take it to

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 305

pieces, inspected it inside and out, and was so dis-
gusted with his failure to find anything contraband
in it that he returned everything to the trunk, and
let us off.

It is commonly and quite justly supposed that
the more familiar the traveler is with the language
of the place he visits, the better he will get along.
It is a common experience to find that even when
you can pronounce the language, you cannot un-
derstand what is said. But there are exceptions to
all rules, and circumstances now and then occur
in which one thus afflicted has an advantage over
the native. You can talk to him, while he cannot
talk to you. There was an amusing case of this
kind at Munich. The only train that would take
us to Berlin before nightfall of the same day
left at eight o'clock in the morning, by a certain
route. There was at Munich what we call a union
station. I stopped at the first ticket-office where
I saw the word "Berlin " on the glass, asked for a
ticket good in the train that was going to leave at
eight o'clock the next morning for Berlin, and took
what the seller gave me. He was a stupid-looking
fellow, so when I got to my hotel I showed the
ticket to a friend. " That is not the ticket that
you want at all," said he ; " it will take you by a
circuitous route in a train that does not leave until
after nine, and you will not reach Berlin until long
after dark." I went directly back to the station
and showed my ticket to the agent.

"I — asked — you — for — a — ticket — good

306 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

— in — the — train — which — leaves — at —
eight — o' — clock. This — ticket — is — not

— good — in — that — train. Sie — hahen —
mich — betriigen. I — want — you — to — take

— the — ticket — back — and — return — me —
the — money. What — you — say — can — I —
not — understand."

He expostulated, gesticulated, and fumed, but I
kept up the bombardment until he had to sur-
render. He motioned to me to step round into the
office, where he took the ticket and returned the
money. I mention the matter because taking back
a ticket is said to. be quite unusual on a German
railway.

At Berlin, the leading astronomers then, as now,
were Forster, director of the observatory, and Au-
wers, permanent secretary of the Academy of Sci-
ences. I was especially interested in the latter, as
we had started in life nearly at the same time, and
had done much work on similar lines. It was sev-
eral days before I made his acquaintance, as I did
not know that the rule on the Continent is that the
visitor must make the first call, or at least make it
known by direct communication that he would be
pleased to see the resident ; otherwise it is pre-
sumed that he does not wish to see callers. This
is certainly the more logical system, but it is not so
agreeable to the visiting stranger as ours is. The
art of making the latter feel at home is not brought
to such perfection on the Continent as in England ;

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 307

perhaps the French understand it less than any
other people. But none can be pleasanter than
the Germans, when you once make their acquaint-
ance ; and we shall always remember with pleasure
the winter we passed in Berlin.

To-day, Auwers stands at the head of German
astronomy. In him is seen the highest type of the
scientific investigator of our time, one perhaps bet-
ter developed in Germany than in any other coimtry.
The work of men of this type is marked by minute
and careful research, untiring industry in the accu-
mulation of facts, caution in propounding new the-
ories or explanations, and, above all, the absence of
effort to gain recognition by being the first to make
a discovery. When men are ambitious to figure
as Newtons of some great principle, there is a con-
stant temptation to publish unverified speculations
which are likely rather to impede than to promote
the advance of knowledge. The result of Auwers's
conscientiousness is that, notwithstanding his em-
inence in his science, there are few astronomers of
note whose works are less fitted for popular expo-
sition than his. His specialty has been the treat-
ment of all questions concerning the positions and
motions of the stars. This work has required ac-
curate observations of position, with elaborate and
careful investigations of a kind that ofEer no fea-
ture to attract public attention, and only in excep-
tional cases lead to conclusions that would interest
the general reader. He considers no work as ready
for publication until it is completed in every detail.

308 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

The old astronomical observations of which I
was in quest might well have been made by other
astronomers than those of Paris, so while awaiting
the end of the war I tried to make a thorough
search of the writings of the mediaeval astronomers
in the Royal Library. If one knew exactly what
books he wanted, and had plenty of time at his
disposal, he would find no difficulty in consulting
them in any of the great Continental libraries.
But at the time of my visit, notwithstanding the
cordiality with which all the officials, from Pro-
fessor Lepsius down, were disposed to second my
efforts, the process of getting any required book
was very elaborate. Although one could obtain a
book on the same day he ordered it, if he went in
good time, it was advisable to leave the order the
day before, if possible. When, as in the present
case, one book only suggests another, this a third,
and so on, in an endless chain, the carrying on of
an extended research is very tedious.

One feature of the library strongly impressed
me with the comparatively backward state of
mathematical science in our own country. As is
usual in the great European libraries, those books
which are most consulted are placed in the general
reading-room, where any one can have access to
them, at any moment. It was surprising to see
amongst these books a set of Crelle's " Journal of
Mathematics," and to find it well worn by constant
use. At that time, so far as I could learn, there
were not more than two or three sets of the Journal

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 309

in the United States ; and these were almost unused.
Even the Library of Congress did not contain a set.
There has been a great change since that time, —
a change in which the Johns Hopkins University-
took the lead, by inviting Sylvester to this country,
and starting a mathematical school of the highest
grade. Other universities followed its example to
such an extent that, to-day, an American student
need not leave his own country to hear a master in
any branch of mathematics.

I believe it was Dr. B. A. Gould who called the
Pulkova Observatory the astronomical capital of the
world. This institution was founded in 1839 by
the Emperor Nicholas, on the initiative of his great-
est astronomer. It is situated some twelve miles
south of St. Petersburg, not far from the railway
between that city and BerKn, and gets its name
from a peasant village in the neighborhood. From
its foundation it has taken the lead in exact mea-
surements relating to the motion of the earth and
the positions of the principal stars. An important
part of its equipment is an astronomical library,
which is perhaps the most complete in existence.
This, added to all its other attractions, induced me
to pay a visit to Pulkova. Otto Struve, the director,
had been kind enough to send me a message, ex-
pressing the hope that I would pay him a visit, and
giving directions about telegraphing in advance,
so as to insure the dehvery of the dispatch. The
time from Berlin to St. Petersburg is about forty-

310 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

eight hours, the only through train leaving and
arriving in the evening. On the morning of the
day that the train was due I sent the dispatch.
Early in the afternoon, as the train was stopping
at a way station, I saw an official running hastily
from one car to another, looking into each with
some concern. When he came to my door, he
asked if I had sent a telegram to Estafetta. I
told him I had. He then informed me that Esta-
fetta had not received it. But the ti-ain was al-
ready beginning to move, so there was no further
chance to get information. The comical part of
the matter was that " Estafetta " merely means a
post or postman, and that the directions, as Struve
had given them, were to have the dispatch sent by
postman from the station to Pulkova.

It was late in the evening when the train reached
Zarsko-Selo, the railway station for Pulkova,
which is about five miles away. The station-mas-
ter told me that no carriage from Pulkova was
waiting for me, which tended to confirm the fear
that the dispatch had not been received. After
making known my plight, I took a seat in the sta-
tion and awaited the course of events, in some
doubt what to do. Only a few minutes had elapsed
when a good-looking peasant, well wrapped in a fur
overcoat, with a whip in his hand, looked in at the
door, and pronounced very distinctly the words,
" Observatorio Pulkova." Ah ! this is Struve's
driver at last, thought I, and I followed the man
to the door. But when I looked at the conveyance,

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 311

doubt once more supervened. It was scarcely more
than a sledge, and was drawn by a single horse, evi-
dently more familiar with hard work than good
feeding. This did not seem exactly the vehicle
that the great Bussian observatory would send out
to meet a visitor ; yet it was a far country, and I
was not acquainted with its customs.

The way in which my doubt was dispelled shows
that there is one subject besides love on which dif-
ference of language is no bar to the communica-
tion of ideas. This is the desire of the uncivilized
man for a little coin of the realm. In South Af-
rica, Zulu chiefs, who do not know one other word
of English, can say " shiUing " with unmistakable
distinctness. My Russian driver did not know
even this little English word, but he knew enough
of the universal language. When we had made a
good start on the snow-covered prairie, he stopped
his horse for a moment, looked round at me inquir-
ingly, raised his hand, and stretched out two fin-
gers so that I could see them against the starlit sky.

I nodded assent.

Then he drew his overcoat tightly around him
with a gesture of shivering from the cold, beat his
hands upon his breast as if to warm it, and again
looked inquiringly at me.

I nodded again.

The bargain was complete. He was to have two
rubles for the drive, and a little something to warm
up his shivering breast. So he could not be
Struve's man.

312 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

There is no welcome warmer than a Russian one,
and none in any country warmer than that which
the visiting astronomer receives at an observa-
tory. Great is the contrast between the winter
sky of a clear moonless night and the interior of a
dining-room, forty feet square, with a big blazing
fire at one end and a table loaded with eatables in
the middle. The fact that the visitor had never
before met one of his hosts detracted nothing from
the warmth of his reception.

The organizer of the observatory, and its first di-
rector, was Wilhelm Struve, father of the one who
received me, and equally great as man and astrono-
mer. Like many other good Russians, he was the
father of a large family. One of his sons was for
ten years the Russian minister at Washington, and
as popular a diplomatist as ever lived among us.
The instruments which Struve designed sixty years
ago stiU do as fine work as any in the world ; but
one may suspect this to be due more to the astro-
nomers who handle them than to the instruments
themselves.

The air is remarkably clear ; the entrance to St.
Petersburg, ten or twelve miles north, is distinctly
visible, and Struve told me that during the Cri-
mean war he could see, through the great telescope,
the men on the decks of the British ships besieging
Kronstadt, thirty miles away.

One drawback from which the astronomers sufEer
is the isolation of the place. The village at the
foot of the little hill is inhabited only by peasants,

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 313

and the astronomers and employees have nearly all
to be housed in the observatory buildings. There
is no society but their own nearer than the capital.
At the time of my visit the scientific staff was
almost entirely German or Swedish, by birth or lan-
guage. In the state, two opposing parties are the
Russian, which desires the ascendency of the native
Muscovites, and the German, which appreciates the
fact that the best and most valuable of the Tsar's
subjects are of German or other foreign descent.
During the past twenty years the Russian party
has gradually got the upper hand ; and the result
of this ascendency at Pulkova will be looked for
with much solicitude by astronomers everywhere.

Once a year the lonely life of the astronomers is
enlivened by a grand feast — that of the Russian
New Year. One object of the great dining-room
which I have mentioned, the largest room, I be-
heve, in the whole establishment, was to make this
feast possible. My visit took place early in March,
so that I did not see the celebration ; but from
what I have heard, the little colony does what it
can to make up for a year of ennui. Every twenty-
five years it celebrates a jubilee ; the second came
off in 1889.

There is much to interest the visitor in a Rus-
sian peasant village, and that of Pulkova has fea-
tures some of which I have never seen described.
Above the door of each log hut is the name of the
occupant, and below the name is a rude picture of
a bucket, hook, or some other piece of apparatus

314 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

used in extinguishing fire. Inside, the furniture
is certainly meagre enough, yet one could not see
why the occupants should be otherwise than com-
fortable. I know of no good reason why igno-
rance should imply unhappiness ; altogether, there
is some good room for believing that the less civil-
ized races can enjoy themselves, in their own way,
about as well as we can. What impressed me as
the one serious hardship of the peasantry was their
hours of labor. Just how many hours of the
twenty-four these beings find for sleep was not
clear to the visitor ; they seemed to be at work all
day, and at midnight many of them had to start
on their way to St. Petersburg with a cartload for
the market. A church ornamented with tinsel is
a feature of every Russian village ; so also are the
priests. The only two I saw were sitting on a
fence, wearing garments that did not give evidence
of having known water since they were made.
One great drawback to the growth of manufac-
tures in Russia is the number of feast days, on
which the native operators must one and all aban-
don their work, regardless of consequences.

The astronomical observations made at Pulkova
are not published annually, as are those made at
most of the other national observatories; but a
volume relating to one subject is issued whenever
the work is done. When I was there, the volumes
containing the earlier meridian observations were
in press. Struve and his chief assistant. Dr.
Wagner, used to pore nightly over the proof sheets,

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 315

bestowing on every word and detail a minute at-
tention which less patient astronomers would have
found extremely irksome.

Dr. Wagner was a son-in-law of Hansen, the
astronomer of the little ducal observatory at Gotha,
as was also our Bayard Taylor. My first meeting
with Hansen, which occurred after my return to
Berlin, was accompanied with some trepidation.
Modest as was the public position that he held, he
may now fairly be considered the greatest master
of celestial mechanics since Laplace. In what
order Leverrier, Delaunay, Adams, and HiU should
follow him, it is not necessary to decide. To many
readers it will seem singular to place any name
ahead of that of the master who pointed out the
position of Neptune before a human eye had ever
recognized it. But this achievement, great as it
was, was more remarkable for its boldness and
brilliancy than for its inherent difiiculty. If the
work had to be done over again to-day, there are a
number of young men who would be as successful
as Leverrier; but there are none who would at-
tempt to reinvent the methods of Hansen, or even
to improve radically upon them. Their main fea-
ture is the devising of new and refined methods of
computing the variations in the motions of a planet
produced by the attraction of all the other planets.
As Laplace left this subject, the general character
of these variations could be determined without
difficulty, but the computations could not be made
with mathematical exactness. Hansen's methods

316 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

led to results so precise that, if they were fuUy
carried out, it is doubtful whether any deviation
between the predicted and the observed motions of
a planet could be detected by the most refined
observation.

At the time of my visit Mrs. Wagner was suffer-
ing from a severe illness, of which the crisis passed
while I was at Pulkova, and left her, as was sup-
posed, on the road to recovery. I was, of course,
very desirous of meeting so famous a man as Han-
sen. He was expected to preside at a session of the
German commission on the transit of Venus, which
was to be held in Berlin about the time of my re-
turn thither from Pulkova. The opportunity was
therefore open of bringing a message of good news
from his daughter. Apart from this, the prospect
of the meeting might have been embarrassing. The
fact is that I was at odds with him on a scientific
question, and he was a man who did not take a
charitable view of those who differed from him in
opinion.

He was the author of a theory, current thirty or
forty years ago, that the farther side of the moon is
composed of denser materials than the side turned
toward us. As a result of this, the centre of grav-
ity of the moon was supposed to be farther from us
than the actual centre of her globe. It followed
that, although neither atmosphere nor water existed
on our side of the moon, the other side might have
both. Here was a very tempting field into which
astronomical speculators stepped, to clothe the in-

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 317

visible hemisphere of the moon with a beautiful ter-
restrial landscape, and people it as densely as they
pleased with beings like ourselves. If these beings
should ever attempt to explore the other half of
their own globe, they would find themselves ascend-
ing to a height completely above the limits of their
atmosphere. Hansen himself never countenanced
such speculations as these, but confined his claims
to the simple facts he supposed proven.

In 1868 I had published a little paper showing
what I thought a fatal defect, a vicious circle in
fact, in Hansen's reasoning on this subject. Not
long before my visit, Delaunay had made this paper
the basis of a communication to the French Acad-
emy of Sciences, in which he not only indorsed my
views, but sought to show the extreme improbabil-
ity of Hansen's theory on other grounds.

When I first reached Germany, on my way from
Italy, I noticed copies of a blue pamphlet lying on
the tables of the astronomers. Apparently, the pa-
per had been plentifully distributed ; but it was not
until I reached BerHn that I found it was Hansen's
defense against my strictures, — a defense in which
mathematics were not unmixed with scathing sar-
casm at the expense of both Delaunay and myself.
The case brought to mind a warm discussion be-
tween Hansen and Encke, in the pages of a scien-
tific journal, some fifteen years before. At the time
it had seemed intensely comical to see two enraged
combatants — for so I amused myself by fancying
them — hurling algebraic formulae, of frightful

318 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

complexity, at each other's heads. I did not then
dream that I should live to be an object of the same
sort of attack, and that from Hansen himself.

To be revised, pulled to pieces, or superseded,
as science advances, is the common fate of most
astronomical work, even the best. It does not
follow that it has been done in vain ; if good, it
forms a foundation on which others will build.
But not every great investigator can look on with
philosophic calm when he sees his work thus
treated, and Hansen was among the last who could.

Under these circumstances, it was a serious ques-
tion what sort of reception Hansen would accord
to a reviser of his conclusions who should venture
to approach him. I determined to assume an atti-
tude that would show no consciousness of offense,
and was quite successful. Our meeting was not
attended by any explosion ; I gave him the plea-
sant message with which I was charged from his
daughter, and, a few days later, sat by his side at
a dinner of the German commission on the coming
transit of Venus.

As Hansen was Germany's greatest master in
mathematical astronomy, so was the venerable
Argelander in the observational side of the science.
He was of the same age as the newly crowned
Emperor, and the two were playmates at the time
Germany was being overrun by the armies of Na^
poleon. He was held in love and respect by the
entire generation of young astronomers, both Ger-
mans and foreigners, many of whom were proud to

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 319

have had him as their preceptor. Among these
was Dr. B. A. Gould, who frequently related a
story of the astronomer's wit. When with him as
a student, Gould was beardless, but had a good
head of hair. Eeturning some years later, he had
become bald, but had made up for it by having a
full, long beard. He entered Argelander's study
unannounced. At first the astronomer did not
recognize him.

" Do you not know me, Herr Professor ? "

The astronomer looked more closely. " Mine
Gott ! It is Gould mit his hair struck through ! "

Argelander was more than any one else the
founder of that branch of his science which treats
of variable stars. His methods have been followed
by his successors to the present time. It was his
policy to make the best use he could of the instru-
ments at his disposal, rather than to invent new
ones that might prove of doubtful utihty. The
results of his work seem to justify this policy.

We passed the last month of the winter in Ber-
lin waiting for the war to close, so that we could
visit Paris. Poor France had at length to suc-
cumb, and in the latter part of March, we took
almost the first train that passed the Unes.

Delaunay was then director of the Paris Observa-
tory, having succeeded Leverrier when the emperor
petulantly removed the latter from his position. I
had for some time kept up an occasional corre-
spondence with Delaunay, and while in England,
the autumn before, had forwarded a message to

320 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

him, through the Prussian lines, by the good
offices of the London legation and Mr. Washburn.
He was therefore quite prepared for our arrival.
The evacuation of a country by a hostile army is
rather a slow process, so that the German troops
were met everywhere on the road, even in France.
They had left Paris just before we arrived ; but
the French national army was not there, the Com-
munists having taken possession of the city as fast
as the Germans withdrew. As we passed out of
the station, the first object to strike our eyes was
a flaming poster addressed to " Citoyens," and
containing one of the manifestoes which the Com-
munist government was continually issuing.

Of course we made an early call on Mr. Wash-
burn. His career in Paris was one of the triumphs
of diplomacy ; he had cared for the interests of
German subjects in Paris in such a way as to earn
the warm recognition both of the emperor and of
Bismarck, and at the same time had kept on such
good terms with the French as to be not less
esteemed by them. He was surprised that we had
chosen such a time to visit Paris ; but I told him
the situation, the necessity of my early return
home, and my desire to make a careful search in
the records of the Paris Observatory for observa-
tions made two centuries ago. He advised us to
take up our quarters as near to the observatory as
convenient, in order that we might not have to
pass through the portions of the city which were
likely to be the scenes of disturbance.

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 321

We were received at the observatory with a
warmth of welcome that might be expected to ac-
company the greeting of the first foreign visitor,
after a siege of six months. Yet a tinge of sad-
ness in the meeting was unavoidable. Delaunay
immediately began lamenting the condition of his
poor ruined country, despoiled of two of its pro-
vinces by a foreign foe, condemned to pay an enor-
mous subsidy in addition, and now the scene of an
internal conflict the end of which no one could
foresee.

While I was mousing among the old records of
the Paris Observatory, the city was under the reign
of the Commune and besieged by the national
forces. The studies had to be made within hear-
ing of the besieging guns ; and I could sometimes
go to a window and see flashes of artillery from
one of the fortifications to the south. Nearly every
day I took a walk through the town, occasionally
as far as the Arc de Triomphe. The story of the
Commune has been so often written that I cannot
hope to add anything to it, so far as the main
course of events is concerned. Looking back on
a sojourn at so interesting a period, one cannot
but feel that a golden opportunity to make obser-
vations of historic value was lost. The fact is,
however, that I was prevented from making such
observations not only by my complete absorption
in my work, but by the consideration that, being
in what might be described as a semi-official capa-
city, I did not want to get into any difficulty that

322 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

would have compromised the position of an official
visitor. I should not deem what we saw worthy of
special mention, were it not that it materially modi-
fies the impressions commonly given by writers on
the history of the Commune. What an historian
says may be quite true, so far as it goes, and yet
may be so far from the whole truth as to give the
reader an incorrect impression of the actual course
of events. The violence and disease which prevail
in the most civilized country in the world may be
described in such terms as to give the impression
of a barbarous community. The murder of the
Archbishop of Paris and of the hostages show how
desperate were the men who had seized power, yet
the acts of these men constitute but a small part of
the history of Paris during that critical period.

What one writes at the time is free from the
suspicion that may attach to statements not re-
corded till many years after the events to which
they relate. The following extract from a letter
which I wrote to a friend, the day after my arrival,
may therefore be taken to show how things actu-
ally looked to a spectator : —

Deae Charlie, — Here we are, on this slumbering
volcano. Perhaps you will hear of the burst-up long
before you get this. We have seen historic objects
which fall not to the lot of every generation, the bar-
ricades of the Paris streets. As we were walking out
this morning, the pavement along one side of the street
was torn up for some distance, and used to build a tem-
porary fort. Said fort would be quite strong against

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 323

musketry or the bayonet ; but with heavy shot against
it, I should think it would be far worse than nothing,
for the flying stones would kill more than the balls.

The streets are placarded at every turn with all sorts
of inflammatory appeals, and general orders of the Co-
mite Central or of the Commune. One of the first
things I saw last night was a large placard beginning
" Citoyens ! " Among the orders is one forbidding any
one from placarding any orders of the Versailles gov-
ernment under the severest penalties; and another
threatening with instant dismissal any official who shall
recognize any order issuing from the said government.

I must do all hands the justice to say that they are
all very well behaved. There is nothing like a mob
anywhere, so far as I can find. I consulted my map
this morning, right alongside the barricade and in full
view of the builders, without being molested, and wife
and I walked through the insurrectionary districts with-
out being troubled or seeing the slightest symptoms of
disturbance. The stores are all open, and every one seems
to be buying and selling as usual. In all the cafes I
have seen, the habitues seem to be drinking their wine
just as coolly as if they had nothing unusual on their
minds.

From this date to that of our departure I saw
nothing suggestive of violence within the limited
range of my daily walks, which were mostly within
the region including the Arc de Triomphe, the
HStel de Ville, and the observatory ; the latter be-
ing about half a mile south of the Luxembourg.
The nearest approach to a mob that I ever noticed
was a drill of young recruits of the National Guard,
or a crowd in the court of the Louvre being ha-

324 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

rangued by an orator. With due allowance for the
excitability of the French nature, the crowd was
comparatively as peaceable as that which we may
see surrounding a gospel wagon in one of our own
cities. A drill-ground for the recruits happened
to be selected opposite our first lodgings, beside
the gates of the Luxembourg. This was so dis-
agreeable that we were glad to accept an invitation
from Delaunay to be his guests at the observatory,
during the remainder of our stay. We had not
been there long before the spacious yard of the
observatory was also used as a drill-ground ; and
yet later, two or three men were given billets de
logement upon the observatory ; but I should not
have known of the latter occurrence, had not Delau-
nay told me. I believe he bought the men off,
much as one pays an organ-grinder to move on.
In one of our walks we entered the barricade around
the Hotel de ViUe, and were beginning to make a
close examination of a mitrailleuse, when a soldier
(beg his pardon, un citoyen membre de la Garde
Nationale) warned us away from the weapon. The
densest crowd of Communists was along the Eue
de Rivoli and in the region of the Colonne Ven-
dome, where some of the principal barricades were
being erected. But even here, not only were the
stores open as usual, but the military were doing
their work in the midst of piles of trinkets exposed
for sale on the pavement by the shopwomen. The
order to destroy the Column was issued before we
left, but not executed untU later. I have no rea-

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 325

son to suppose that the shopwomen were any more
concerned while the Column was being undermined
than they were before. To complete the picture,
not a policeman did we see in Paris ; in fact, I was
told that one of the first acts of the Commune had
been to drive the police away, so that not one
dared to show himself.

An interesting feature of the sad spectacle was
the stream of proclamations poured forth by the
Communist authorities. They comprised not only
decrees, but sensational stories of victories over the
Versailles troops, denunciations of the Versailles
government, and even elaborate legal arguments,
including a not intemperate discussion of the ethi-
cal question whether citizens who were not adher-
ents of the Commune should be entitled to the
right of suffrage. The conclusion was that they
should not. The lack of humor on the part of the
authorities was shown by their commencing one of
a rapid succession of battle stories with the words,
" Citoyens ! Vous avez soif de la verite ! " The
most amusing decree I noticed ran thus : —

'* Article I. All conscription is abolished.

" Article II. No troops shall hereafter be allowed
in Paris, except the National Guard. ;

" Article III. Every citizen is a member of the
National Guard."

We were in daily expectation and hope of the
capture of the city, little imagining by what scenes
it would be accompanied. It did not seem to my
unmilitary eye that two or three batteries of artil-

326 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

lery could have any trouble in demolishing all the
defenses, since a wall of paving-stones, four or five
feet high, could hardly resist solid shot, or prove
anything but a source of destruction to those be-
hind it if attacked by artillery. But the capture
was not so easy a matter as I had supposed.

We took leave of our friend and host on May 5,
three weeks before the final catastrophe, of which
he wrote me a graphic description. As the barri-
cades were stormed by MacMahon, the Communist
line of retreat was through the region of the obser-
vatory. The walls of the building and of the yard
were so massive that the place was occupied as a
fort by the retreating forces, so that the situation
of the few non-combatants who remained was ex-
tremely critical. They were exposed to the fire
of their friends, the national troops, from without,
while enraged men were threatening their hves
within. So hot was the fusillade that, going into
the great dome after the battle, the astronomer
could imagine all the constellations of the sky de-
picted by the bullet-holes. When retreat became
inevitable, the Communists tried to set the building
on fire, but did not succeed. Then, in their des-
peration, arrangements were made for blowing it
up ; but the most violent man among them was
killed by a providential bullet, as he was on the
point of doing his work. The remainder fled, the
place was speedily occupied by the national troops,
and the observatory with its precious contents was
saved.

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 327

The Academy of Sciences had met regularly
through the entire Prussian siege. The legal quo-
rum heing three, this did not imply a large attend-
ance. The reason humorously assigned for this
number was that, on opening a session, the presid-
ing officer must say, Messieurs, la stance est ou-
verte, and he cannot say Messieurs unless there
are at least two to address. At the time of my
visit a score of members were in the city. Among
them were Elie de Beaumont, the geologist ; Milne-
Edwards, the zoologist ; and Chevreid, the chemist.
I was surprised to learn that the latter was in his
eighty-fifth year ; he seemed a man of seventy or
less, mentally and physically. Yet we little thought
that he would be the longest-Hved man of equal
eminence that our age has known. When he died,
in 1889, he was nearly one hundred and three years
old. Born in 1786, he had lived through the whole
French Revolution, and was seven years old at the
time of the Terror. His scientific activity, from
beginning to end, extended over some eighty years.
When I saw him, he was still very indignant at a
bombardment of the Jardin des Plantes by the
German besiegers. He had made a formal state-
ment of this outrage to the Academy of Sciences,
in order that posterity might know what kind of
men were besieging Paris. I suggested that the
shells might have fallen in the place by accident ;
but he maintained that it was not the case, and that
the bombardment was intentional.

The most execrated man in the scientific circle

328 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTEONOMER

at this time was Leverrier. He had left Paris he-
fore the Prussian siege hegan, and had not returned.
Delaunay assured me that this was a wise precau-
tion on his part ; for had he ventured into the city
he would have been mobbed, or the Communists
would have killed him as soon as caught. Just why
the mob should have been so incensed against one
whose life was spent in the serenest fields of astro-
nomical science was not fully explained. The fact
that he had been a senator, and was politically ob-
noxious, was looked on as an all-sufficient indict-
ment. Even members of the Academy could not
suppress their detestation of him. Their language
seemed not to have words that would fully express
their sense of his despicable meanness, not to say
turpitude.

Four years later I was again in Paris, and at-
tended a meeting of the Academy of Sciences.
In the course of the session a rustle of attention
spread over the room, as all eyes were turned upon
a member who was entering rather late. Looking
toward the door, I saw a man of sixty, a decided
blond, with light chestnut hair turning gray, slen-
der form, shaven face, rather pale and thin, but
very attractive, and extremely intellectual features.
As he passed to his seat hands were stretched out
on all sides to greet him, and not until he sat down
did the bustle caused by his entrance subside. He
was evidently a notable.

" Who is that ? " I said to my neighbor.

" Leverrier."

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 329

Delaunay was one of the most kindly and at-
tractive men I ever met. We spent our evenings
walking in the grounds of the observatory, discuss-
ing French science in all its aspects. His investi-
gation of the moon's motion is one of the most
extraordinary pieces of mathematical work ever
turned out by a single person. It fills two quarto
volumes, and the reader who attempts to go
through any part of the calculations will wonder
how one man could do the work in a lifetime. His
habit was to commence early in the morning, and
work with but little interruption until noon. He
never worked in the evening, and generally retired
at nine. I felt some qualms of conscience at the
frequency with which I kept him up till nearly ten.
I found it hopeless to expect that he would ever
visit America, because he assured me that he did
not dare to venture on the ocean. The only voy-
age he had ever made was across the Channel, to
receive the gold medal of the Eoyal Astronomi-
cal Society for his work. Two of his relatives —
his father and, I believe, his brother — had been
drowned, and this fact gave him a horror of the
water. He seemed to feel somewhat like the
cUents of the astrologists, who, having been told
from what agencies they were to die, took every
precaution to avoid them. I remember, as a boy,
reading a history of astrology, in which a great
many cases of this sort were described ; the peculiar-
ity being that the very measures which the victim
took to avoid the decree of fate became the engines

330 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

that executed it. The death of Delaunay was not
exactly a case of this kind, yet it could not but bring
it to mind. He was at Cherbourg in the autumn of
1872. As he was walking on the beach with a
relative, a couple of boatmen invited them to take a
sail. Through what inducement Delaunay was led
to forget his fears will never be known. All we
know is that he and his friend entered the boat,
that it was struck by a sudden squall when at some
distance from the land, and that the whole party
were drowned.

There was no opposition to the reappointment of
Leverrier to his old place. In fact, at the time of
my visit, Delaunay said that President Thiers was
on terms of intimate friendship with the former
director, and he thought it not at all unUkely that
the latter would succeed in being restored. He
kept the position with general approval till his
death in 1877.

The only occasion on which I met Leverrier was
after the incident I have mentioned, in the Acad-
emy of Sciences. I had been told that he was
incensed against me on account of an unfortunate
remark I had made in speaking of his work which
led to the discovery of Neptune. I had heard this
in Germany as well as in France, yet the matter
was so insignificant that I could hardly conceive of
a man of philosophic mind taking any notice of it.
I determined to meet him, as I had met Hansen,
with entire unconsciousness of offense. So I called
on him at the observatory, and was received with

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 331

courtesy, but no particular warmth. I suggested
to him that now, as he had nearly completed his
work on the tables of the planets, the question of
the moon's motion would be the next object worthy
of his attention. He replied that it was too large
a subject for him to take up.

To Leverrier belongs the credit of having been
the real organizer of the Paris Observatory. His
work there was not dissimilar to that of Airy at
Greenwich ; but he had a much more difficult task
before him, and was less fitted to grapple with
it. When founded by Louis XIV. the estabHsh-
ment was simply a place where astronomers of the
Academy of Sciences could go to make their ob-
servations. There was no titular director, every
man working on his own account and in his own
way. Cassini, an Italian by birth, was the best
known of the astronomers, and, in consequence,
posterity has very generally supposed he was the
director. That he failed to secure that honor was
not from any want of astuteness. It is related that
the monarch once visited the observatory to see a
newly discovered comet through the telescope. He
inquired in what direction the comet was going to
move. This was a question it was impossible to an-
swer at the moment, because both observations and
computations would be necessary before the orbit
coidd be worked out. But Cassini reflected that
the king would not look at the comet again, and
would very soon forget what was told him ; so he
described its future path in the heavens quite at

332 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

random, with entire confidence that any deviation
of the actual motion from his prediction would
never be noted by his royal patron.

One of the results of this lack of organization
has been that the Paris Observatory does not hold
an historic rank correspondent to the magnificence
of the establishment. The go-as-you-please system
works no better in a national observatory than it
would in a business institution. Up to the end of
the last century, the observations made there were
too irregular to be of any special importance. To
remedy this state of things, Arago was appointed
director early in the present century ; but he was
more eminent in experimental physics than in as-
tronomy, and had no great astronomical problem
to solve. The result was that while he did much
to promote the reputation of the observatory in
the direction of physical investigation, he did not
organize any well-planned system of regular astro-
nomical work.

When Leverrier succeeded Arago, in 1853, he
had an extremely difi&cult problem before him. By
a custom extending through two centuries, each
astronomer was to a large extent the master of his
own work. Leverrier undertook to change aU this
in a twinkling, and, if reports are true, without
much regard to the feehngs of the astronomers.
Those who refused to fall into line either resigned
or were driven away, and their places were filled
with men willing to work under the direction of
their chief. Yet his methods were not up to the

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE 333

times ; and the work of the Paris Observatory, so
far as observations of precision go, falls markedly
behind that of Greenwich and Pulkova.

In recent times the institution has been marked
by an energy and a progressiveness that go far to
atone for its former deficiencies. The successors
of Leverrier have known where to draw the Hne
between routine, on the one side, and initiative on
the part of the assistants, on the other. Probably
no other observatory in the world has so many able
and well-trained young men, who work partly on
their own account, and partly in a regular routine.
In the direction of physical astronomy the observa-
tory is especially active, and it may be expected in
the future to justify its historic reputation.

xn

THE OUD AKD THE NEW WASHINGTON

A FEW features of Washington as it appeared dur-
ing the civil war are indelibly fixed in my memory.
An endless train of army wagons ploughed its
streets with their heavy wheels. Almost the entire
southwestern region, between the War Department
and the Potomac, extending west on the river to
the neighborhood of the observatory, was occupied
by the Quartermaster's and Subsistence Depart-
ments for storehouses. Among these the astrono-
mers had to walk by day and night, in going to and
from their work. After a rain, especially during
winter and spring, some of the streets were much
like shallow canals. Under the attrition of the
iron-bound wheels the water and clay were ground
into mud, which was at first almost hquid. It grew
thicker as it dried up, imtil perhaps another rain-
storm reduced it once more to a liquid condition.
In trying first one street and then another to see
which offered the fewest obstacles to his passage,
the wayfarer was reminded of the assurance given
by a bright boy to a traveler who wanted to know
the best road to a certain place : " Whichever road
you take, before you get halfway there you 'U wish
you had taken t' other." By night swarms of rats,

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 335

of a size proportional to their ample food supply,
disputed the right of way with the pedestrian.

Across the Potomac, Arlington Heights were
whitened by the tents of soldiers, from which the
discharges of artillery or the sound of the fife and
drum became so familiar that the dweller almost
ceased to notice it. The city was defended by a row
of earthworks, generally not far inside the boundary
line of the District of Columbia, say five or six miles
from the central portions of the city. One of the
circumstances connected with their plans strikingly
illustrates the exactness which the science or art of
military engineering had reached. Of course the
erection of fortifications was one of the first tasks
to be undertaken by the War Department. Plans
showing the proposed location and arrangements of
the several forts were drawn up by aboard of army
engineers, at whose head, then or afterward, stood
General John G. Barnard. When the plans were
complete, it was thought advisable to test them by
calling in the advice of Professor D. H. Mahan of
the Military Academy at West Point. He came to
Washington, made a careful study of the maps and
plans, and was then driven around the region of the
lines to be defended to supplement his knowledge
by personal inspection. Then he laid down his ideas
as to the location of the forts. There were but two
variations from the plans proposed by the Board of
Engineers, and these were not of fundamental im-
portance.

Willard's Hotel, then the only considerable one

336 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

in the neighborhood of the executive offices, was a
sort of headquarters for arriving army officers, as
well as for the thousands of civilians who had busi-
ness with the government, and for gossip generally.
Inside its crowded entrance one could hear every
sort of story, of victory or disaster, generally the
latter, though very little truth was ever to be
gleaned.

The newsboy flourished. He was a bright fellow
too, and may have developed into a man of business,
a reporter, or even an editor. "Another great bat-
tle ! " was his constant cry. But the purchaser of
his paper would commonly read of nothing but a
skirmish or some fresh account of a battle fought
several days before — perhaps not even this. On
one occasion an officer in uniform, finding nothing
in his paper to justify the cry, turned upon the boy
with the remark, —

" Look here, boy, I don't see any battle here."

" No," was the reply, " nor you won't see one as
long as you hang around Washington. If you
want to see a battle you must go to the front."

The officer thought it unprofitable to continue
the conversation, and beat a retreat amid the smiles
of the bystanders. This story, I may remark, is
quite authentic, which is more than one can say of
the report that a stick thrown by a boy at a dog
in front of WHlard's Hotel struck twelve brigadier
generals during its flight.

The presiding genius of the whole was Mr. Edwin
M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Before the actual

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 337

outbreak of the conflict he had been, I believe, at
least a Democrat, and, perhaps, to a certain extent,
a Southern sympathizer so far as the slavery ques-
tion was concerned. But when it came to blows,
he espoused the side of the Union, and after being
made Secretary of War he conducted military oper-
ations with a tireless energy, which made him seem
the impersonation of the god of war. Ordinarily
his character seemed almost savage when he was
dealing with military matters. He had no mercy
on inefficiency or lukewarmness. But his sympa-
thetic attention, when a case called for it, is strik-
ingly shown in the following letter, of which I
became possessed by mere accident. At the begin-
ning of the war Mr. Charles EUet, an eminent engi-
neer, then resident near Washington, tendered his
services to the government, and equipped a fleet of
small river steamers on the Mississippi under the War
Department. In the battle of June 6, 1862, he re-
ceived a wound from which he died some two weeks
later. His widow sold or leased his house on George-
town Heights, and I boarded in it shortly afterward.
Amongst some loose rubbish and old papers lying
around in one of the rooms I picked up the letter
which follows.

Wab Department,
Washington City, D. C, June 9, 1862.

Dear Madam, — I understand from Mr. EUet's dis-
patch to you that as he will be unfit for duty for some
time it will be agreeable to him for you to visit him, tra-
veling slowly so as not to expose your own health.

With this view I will afford you every facility within

338 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the control of the Department, by way of Pittsburg and
Cincinnati to Cairo, where he will probably meet you.
Yours truly,

Edwin M. Stanton,

Secretary of War.

The interesting feature of this letter is that it
is entirely in the writer's autograph, and bears no
mark of having been press copied. I infer that it
was written out of office hours, after all the clerks
had left the Department, perhaps late at night,
while the secretary was taking advantage of the
stillness of the hour to examine papers and plans.

Only once did I come into personal contact with
Mr. Stanton. A portrait of Ferdinand R. Hassler,
first superintendent of the Coast Survey, had been
painted about 1840 by Captain Williams of the
Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., a son-in-law of Mr.
G. W. P. Custis, and therefore a brother-in-law of
General Lee. The picture at the Arlington house
was given to Mrs. Colonel Abert, who loaned it to
Mr. Custis. When the civil war began she verbally
donated it to my wife, who was Mr. Hassler's grand-
daughter, and was therefore considered the most
appropriate depositary of it, asking her to get it if
she could. But before she got actual possession
of it, the Arlington house was occupied by our
troops and Mr. Stanton ordered the picture to be
presented to Professor Agassiz for the National
Academy of Sciences. On hearing of this, I ven-
tured to mention the matter to Mr. Stanton, with
a brief statement of our claims upon the picture.

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 339

" Sir," said he, " that picture was found In the
house of a rebel in arms [General Eobert E. Lee],
and was justly a prize of war. I therefore made
what I considered the most appropriate disposition
of it, by presenting it to the National Academy of
Sciences."

The expression " house of a rebel in arms " was
uttered with such emphasis that I almost felt like
one under suspicion of relations with the enemy
in pretending to claim the object in question. It
was clearly useless to pursue the matter any fur-
ther at that time. Some years later, when the
laws were no longer silent, the National Academy
decided that whoever might be the legal owner
of the picture, the Academy could have no claim
upon it, and therefore suffered it to pass into the
possession of the only claimant.

Among the notable episodes of the civil war was
the so-called raid of the Confederate general. Early,
in July, 1864. He had entered Maryland and de-
feated General Lew Wallace. This left nothing
but the well-designed earthworks around Washing-
ton between his army and our capital. Some have
thought that, had he immediately made a rapid
dash, the city might have fallen into his hands.

All in the service of the War and Navy depart-
ments who were supposed capable of rendering
efficient help, were ordered out to take part in the
defense of the city, among them the younger pro-
fessors of the observatory. By order of Captain
Gilliss I became a member of a naval brigade,

340 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

organized in the most hurried manner by Admiral
Goldsborough, and including in it several officers
of high and low rank. The rank and file was
formed of the workmen in the Navy Yard, most
of whom were said to have seen military service of
one kind or another. The brigade formed at the
Navy Yard about the middle of the afternoon, and
was ordered to march out to Fort Lincoln, a strong
earthwork built on a prominent hill, half a mile
southwest of the station now known as Rives.
The Reform School of the District of Columbia
now stands on the site of the fort. The position
certainly looked very strong. On the right the
fort was flanked by a deep intrenchment running
along the brow of the hill, and the whole line
would include in the sweep of its fire the region
which an army would have to cross in order to
enter the city. The naval brigade occupied the
trench, while the army force, which seemed very
small in numbers, manned the front.

I was not assigned to any particular duty, and
simply walked round the place in readiness to act
whenever called upon. I supposed the first thing
to be done was to have the men in the trench
go through some sort of drill, in order to assure
their directing the most efEective fire on the en-
emy should he appear. The trench was perhaps
six feet deep ; along its bottom ran a little ledge
on which the men had to step in order to deliver
their fire, stepping back into the lower depth to
load again. Along the edge was a sort of rail

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 341

fence, the bottom rail of which rested on the
ground. In order to fire on an enemy coming
up the hill, it would be necessary to rest the weapon
on this bottom rail. It was quite evident to me
that a man not above the usual height, standing
on the ledge, would have to stand on tiptoe in
order to get the muzzle of his gun properly directed
down the slope. If he were at all flurried he would
be likely to fire over the head of the enemy. I
called attention to this state of things, but did not
seem to make any impression on the officers, who
replied that the men had seen service and knew
what to do.

We bivouacked that night, and remained all the
next day and the night following awaiting the
attack of the enemy, who was supposed to be ap-
proaching Fort Stevens on the Seventh Street road.
At the critical moment. General H. G. Wright
arrived from Fort Monroe with his army corps.
He and General A. McD. McCook both took their
stations at Fort Lincoln, which it was supposed
would be the point of attack. A quarter or half
a mile down the hill was the mansion of the Eives
family, which a passenger on the Baltimore and
Ohio Eailway can readily see at the station of that
name. A squad of men was detailed to go to this
house and destroy it, in case the enemy should
appear. The attack was expected at daybreak, but
General Early, doubtless hearing of the arrival of re-
inforcements, abandoned any project he might have
entertained and had beat a retreat the day before.

342 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Whether the supposition that he could have taken
the city with great celerity has any foundation, I
cannot say ; I should certainly greatly doubt it,
remembering the large loss of life generally suffered
during the civil war by troops trying to storm in-
trenchments or defenses of any sort, even with
greatly superior force.

I was surprised to find how quickly one could
acquire the stolidity of the soldier. During the
march from the Navy Yard to. the fort I felt ex-
tremely depressed, as one can well imagine, in view
of the suddenness with which I had to take leave
of my family and the uncertainty of the situation,
as well as its extreme gravity. But this depression
wore off the next day, and I do not think I ever had
a sounder night's sleep in my life than when I lay
down on the grass, with only a blanket between
myself and the sky, with the expectation of being
awakened by the rattle of musketry at daybreak.

I remember well how kindly we were treated by
the army. The acquaintance of Generals Wright
and McCook, made under such circumstances, was
productive of a feeling which has never worn off.
It has always been a matter of sorrow to me that
the Washington of to-day does not show a more
lively consciousness of what it owes to these men.

One of the entertainments of Washington dur-
ing the early years of the civil war was offered
by President Lincoln's pubhc receptions. We used
to go there simply to see the people and the cos-

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 343

tmnes, the latter being of a variety which I do not
think was ever known on such occasions before or
since. Well-dressed and refined ladies and gentle-
men, men in their working clothes, women arrayed
in costumes fanciful in cut and brilliant in color,
mixed together in a way that suggested a con-
vention of the human race. Just where the oddly
dressed people came from, or what notion took
them at this particular time to don an attire like
that of a fancy-dress ball, no one seemed to know.
Among the never-to-be-forgotten scenes was that
following the news of the fall of Richmond. If I
described it from memory, a question would per-
haps arise in the reader's mind as to how much
fancy might have added to the picture in the
course of nearly forty years. I shall therefore
quote a letter written to Chauncey Wright imme-
diately afterwards, of which I preserved a press
copy.

Observatory, April 7, 1865.

Deab Weight, — Yours of the 5th just received. I
heartily reciprocate your congratulations on the fall of
Richmond and the prospective disappearance of the
S. C. alias C. S.

You ought to have been here Monday. The obser-
vatory is half a mile to a mile from the thickly settled
part of the city. At 11 A. M. we were put upon the qui
vive by an unprecedented commotion in the city. From
the barracks near us rose a continuous stream of cheers,
and in the city was a hubbub such as we had never be-
fore heard. We thought it must be Petersburg or Rich-
mond, but hardly dared to hope which. Miss Gilliss

344 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

sent us word that it was really Richmond. I went
down to the city. All the bedlams in creation broken
loose could not have made such a scene. The stores
were half closed, the clerks given a holiday, the streets
crowded, every other man drunk, and drums were beat-
ing and men shouting and flags waving in every direc-
tion. I never felt prouder of my country than then, as
I compared our present position with our position in the
numerous dark days of the contest, and was almost
ashamed to think that I had ever said that any act of the
government was not the best possible.

Not many days after this outburst, the city was
pervaded by an equally intense and yet deeper feel-
ing of an opposite kind. Probably no event in its
history caused such a wave of sadness and sym-
pathy as the assassination of President Lincoln,
especially during the few days while bands of men
were scouring the country in search of the assassin.
One could not walk the streets vdthout seeing evi-
dence of this at every turn. The sHghtest bustle,
perhaps even the running away of a dog, caused a
tremor.

I paid one short visit to the military court which
was trying the conspirators. The court itself was
listening with silence and gravity to the reading of
the testimony taken on the day previous. General
Wallace produced on the spectators an impression
a little different from the other members, by exhib-
iting an artistic propensity, which subsequently
took a different direction in " Ben Hur." The most
impressive sight was that of the conspirators, all
heavily manacled ; even Mrs. Surratt, who kept her

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 345

irons partly concealed in the folds of her gown.
Payne, the would-he assassin of Seward, was a
powerful-looking man, with a face that showed him
ready for anything ; but the other two conspirators
were such simple-minded, mild-looking youths, that
it seemed hardly possible they could have been ac-
tive agents in such a crime, or capable of any pro-
ceeding requiring physical or mental force.

The impression which I gained at the time from
the evidence and all the circumstances, was that the
purpose of the original plot was not the assassina-
tion of the President, but his abduction and trans-
portation to Richmond or some other point within
the Confederate lines. While Booth himself may
have meditated assassination from the beginning,
it does not seem likely that he made this purpose
known to his fellows until they were ready to act.
Then Payne alone had the courage to attempt the
execution of the programme.

Two facts show that a military court, sitting
under such circumstances, must not be expected to
reach exactly the verdict that a jury would after
the public excitement had died away. Among the
prisoners was the man whose business it was to
assist in arranging the scenery on the stage of the
theatre where the assassination occurred. The only
evidence against him was that he had not taken
advantage of his opportunity to arrest Booth as
the latter was leaving, and for this he was sen-
tenced to twenty years penal servitude. He was
pardoned out before a great while.

346 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

The other circumstance was the arrest of Sur-
ratt, who was supposed to stand next to Booth in
the conspiracy, hut who escaped from the country
and was not discovered until a year or so later,
when he was found to have enlisted in the papal
guards at Eome. He was brought home and tried
twice. On the first trial, notwithstanding the ad-
verse rulings and charge of the judge, only a mi-
nority of the jury were convinced of his guilt. On
the second trial he was, I think, acquitted.

One aftermath of the civil war was the influx
of crowds of the newly freed slaves to Washington,
in search of food and shelter. With a little train-
ing they made fair servants if only their pilfering
propensities could be restrained. But religious
fervor did not ensure obedience to the eighth com-
mandment. "The good Lord ain't goin' to be
hard on a poor darky just for takin' a chicken
now and then," said a wench to a preacher who
had asked her how she could reconcile her reh-
gion with her indifference as to the ownership of
poultry.

In the seventies I had an eight-year-old boy as
help in my family. He had that beauty of face
very common in young negroes who have an ad-
mixture of white blood, added to which were eyes
of such depth and clearness that, but for his color,
he would have made a first-class angel for a medi-
aeval painter.

One evening my Kttle daughters had a chil-
dren's party, and Zeke was placed as attendant in

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 347

charge of the room in which the little company
met. Here he was for some time left alone. Next
morning a gold pen was missing from its case in a
drawer. Suspicion rested on Zeke as the only per-
son who could possibly have taken it, but there was
no positive proof. I thought so small and inno-
cent-looking a boy could be easily cowed into con-
fessing his guilt ; so next morning I said to him
very solemnly, —

" Zeke, come upstairs with me."

He obeyed with alacrity, following me up to the
room.

" Zeke, come into this room."

He did so.

"Now, Zeke," I said sternly, "look here and see
what I do."

I opened the drawer, took out the empty case,
opened it, and showed it to him.

" Zeke, look into my eyes ! "

He neither blinked nor showed the slightest
abashment or hesitation as his soft eyes looked
steadily into mine with all the innocence of an
angel.

"Zeke, where is the pen out of that case?"

" Missr Newcomb," he said quietly, " I don't
know nothin' about it."

I repeated the question, looking into his face as
sternly as I could. As he repeated the answer with
the innocence of childhood, " Deed, Missr Newcomb,
I don't know what was in it," I felt almost like a
brute in pressing him with such severity. Threats

348 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

■were of no avail, and I had to give the matter up
as a failure.

On coming home in the afternoon, the first news
■was that the pen had been found by Zeke's mother
hidden in one corner of her room at home, where
the httle thief had taken it. She, being an honest
woman, and suspecting where it had come from,
had brought it back.

There was a vigorous movement, having its
origin in New England, for the education of the
freedmen. This movement was animated by the
most philanthropic views. Here were several mil-
lions of blacks of all ages, suddenly made citizens,
or eKgible to citizenship, and yet savage so far as
any education was concerned. A small army of
teachers, many, perhaps most of them, young wo-
men, were sent south to organize schools for the
blacks. It may be feared that there was little
adaptation of the teaching to the circumstances of
the case. But one method of instruction widely
adopted was, so far as I can learn, quite unique.
It was the " loud method " of teaching reading
and spelling. The whole school spelled in unison.
The passer-by on the street would hear in chorus
from the inside of the building, "b-e-e-a-d —
BREAD ! " all at the top of the voice of the speak-
ers. Schools in which this method was adopted
were known as " loud schools."

A queer result of this movement once fell under
my notice. I called at a friend's house in George-

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 349

town. In the course of the conversation, it came
out that the sable youngster who opened the door
for me filled the double office of scullion to the
household and tutor in Latin to the Uttle boy of
the family.

Probably the Senate of the United States never
had a member more conscientious in the discharge
of his duties than Charles Sumner. He went little
into society outside the circles of the diplomatic
corps, with which his position as chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee placed him in intimate
relations. My acquaintance with him arose from
the accident of his living for some time almost
opposite me. I was making a study of some his-
toric subject, pertaining to the feeHng in South
Carolina before the civil war, and called at his
rooms to see if he would favor me with the loan
of a book, which I was sure he possessed. He re-
ceived me so pleasantly that I was, for some time,
an occasional visitor. He kept bachelor quarters
on a second floor, lived quite alone, and was acces-
sible to all comers without the sHghtest ceremony.

One day, while I was talking with him, shortly
after the surrender of Lee, a young man in the
garb of a soldier, evidently fresh from the field,
was shown into the room by the housemaid, un-
announced, as usual. Very naturally, he was timid
and diffident in approaching so great a man, and
the latter showed no disposition to say anything
that would reassure him. He ventured to tell the

350 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

senator that he had come to see if he could recom-
mend him for some pubKc employment. I shall
never forget the tone of the reply.

" But / do not know y(m" The poor fellow
was completely dumfounded, and tried to make
some excuses, but the only reply he got was, " I
cannot do it ; I do not know you at aU." The
visitor had nothing to do but turn round and
leave.

At the time I felt some sympathy with the poor
feUow. He had probably come, thinking that the
great philanthropist was quite ready to become a
friend to a Union soldier without much inquiry
into his personality and antecedents, and now he
met with a stinging rebuff. But it must be con-
fessed that subsequent experience has diminished
my sympathy for him, and probably it would be
better for the country i£ the innovation were intro-
duced of having every senator of the United States
dispose of such callers in the same way.

Foreign men of letters, with whom Sumner's
acquaintance was very wide, were always among his
most valued guests. A story is told of Thackeray's
visit to Washington, which I distrust only for the
reason that my ideas of Sumner's make-up do not
assign him the special kind of humor which the story
brings out. He was, however, quoted as saying,
" Thackeray is one of the most perfect gentlemen
I ever knew. I had a striking illustration of that
this morning. We went out for a walk together
and, thoughtlessly, I took him through Lafayette

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 351

Square. Shortly after we entered it, I realized
with alarm that we were going directly toward the
Jackson statue. It was too late to retrace our
steps, and I wondered what Thackeray would say
when he saw the object. But he passed straight
by without seeming to see it at all, and did not say
one word about it."

Sumner was the one man in the Senate whose
seat was scarcely ever vacant during a session. He
gave the closest attention to every subject as it
arose. One instance of this is quite in the line of
the present book. About 1867, an association was
organized in Washington under the name of the
" American Union Academy of Literature, Science,
and Art." Its projectors were known to few, or
none, but themselves. A number of prominent
citizens in various walks of life had been asked to
join it, and several consented without knowing
much about the association. It soon became evi-
dent that the academy was desirous of securing as
much publicity as possible through the newspapers
and elsewhere. It was reported that the Secretary
of the Treasury had asked its opinion on some
instrument or appliance connected with the work
of his department. Congress was applied to for
an act of incorporation, recognizing it as a scien-
tific adviser of the government by providing that
it should report on subjects submitted to it by the
governmental departments, the intent evidently
being that it shoidd supplant the National Acad-
emy of Sciences.

352 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

The application to Congress satisfied the two
requirements most essential to favorable considera-
tion. These are that several respectable citizens
"want something done, and that there is no one
to come forward and say that he does not want
it done. Such being the case, the act passed the
House of Representatives without opposition, came
to the Senate, and was referred to the appropriate
committee, that on education, I beUeve. It was
favorably reported from the committee and placed
on its passage. Up to this point no objection
seems to have been made to it in any quarter.
Now, it was challenged by Mr. Sumner.

The ground taken by the Massachusetts sena-
tor was comprehensive and simple, though possibly
somewhat novel. It was, in substance, that an
academy of literature, science, and art, national in
its character, and incorporated by special act of
Congress, ought to be composed of men eminent
in the branches to which the academy related. He
thought a body of men consisting very largely of
local lawyers, with scarcely a man of prominence
in either of the three branches to which the acad-
emy was devoted, was not the one that should
receive such sanction from the national legisla-
ture.

Mr. J. W. Patterson, of New Hampshire, was
the principal advocate of the measure. He claimed
that the proposed incorporators were not all un-
scientific men, and cited as a single example the
name of 0. M. Poe, which appeared among them.

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 353

This man, he said, was a very distinguished meteor-
ologist.

This example was rather unfortunate. The fact
is, the name in question was that of a well-known
officer of engineers in the army, then on duty at
Washington, who had been iuvited to join the
academy, and had consented out of good nature
without, it seems, much if any inquiry. It hap-
pened that Senator Patterson had, some time dur-
ing the winter, made the acquaintance of a West
Indian meteorologist named Poey, who chanced to
be spending some time in Washington, and got
him mixed up with the officer of engineers. The
senator also intimated that the gentleman from
Massachusetts had been approached on the subject
and was acting under the influence of others. This
suggestion Mr. Sumner repelled, stating that no
one had spoken to him on the subject, that he
knew nothing of it until he saw the bill before
them, which seemed to him to be objectionable for
the very reasons set forth. On his motion the bill
was laid on the table, and thus disposed of for
good. The academy held meetings for some time
after this failure, but soon disappeared from view,
and was never again heard of.

In the year 1862, a fine-looking young general
from the West became a boarder in the house
where I lived, and sat opposite me at table. His
name was James A. Garfield. I believe he had
come to Washington as a member of the court in

354 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AK ASTRONOMER

the case of General Fitz John Porter. He left
after a short time and had, I supposed, quite for-
gotten me. But, after his election to Congress, he
one evening visited the observatory, stepped into
my room, and recalled our former acquaintance.

I soon found him to be a man of classical cul-
ture, refined tastes, and unsurpassed eloquence, —
altogether, one of the most attractive of men. On
one occasion he told me one of his experiences in
the State legislature of Ohio, of which he was a
member before the civil war. A biU was before
the House enacting certain provisions respecting a
depository. He moved, as an amendment, to strike
out the word " depository " and insert " deposi-
tary." Supposing the amendment to be merely
one of spelling, there was a general laugh over the
house, with a cry of " Here comes the schoolmas-
ter ! " But he insisted on his point, and sent for a
copy of Webster's Dictionary in order that the two
words might be compared. When the definitions
were read, the importance of right spelling became
evident, and the laughing stopped.

It has always seemed to me that a rank injus-
tice was done to Garfield on the occasion of the
Credit Mobilier scandal of 1873, which came near
costing him his position in public life. The evi-
dence was of so indefinite and flimsy a nature that
the credence given to the conclusion from it can
only illustrate how little a subject or a document is
exposed to searching analysis outside the precincts
of a law court. When he was nominated for the

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 356

presidency this scandal was naturally raked up
and much made of it. I was so strongly impressed
with the injustice as to write for a New York
newspaper, anonymously of course, a careful analy-
sis of the evidence, with a demonstration of its
total weakness. Whether the article was widely
circulated, or whether Garfield ever heard of it, I
do not know ; but it was amusing, a few days after
it appeared, to see a paragraph in an opposition
paper claiming that its contemporary had gone to
the trouble of hiring a lawyer to defend Garfield.

No man better qualified as a legislator ever oc-
cupied a seat in Congress. A man cast in the
largest mould, and incapable of a petty sentiment,
his grasp of public affairs was rarely equaled, and
his insight into the effects of legislation was of the
deepest. But on what the author of the Autocrat
calls the arithmetical side, — in the power of judg-
ing particular men and not general principles ; in
deciding who were the good men and who were
not, he fell short of the ideal suggested by his leg-
islative career. The brief months during which
he administered the highest of offices were stormy
enough, perhaps stormier than any president be-
fore him had ever experienced, and they would
probably have been outdone by the years following,
had he lived. But I believe that, had he remained
in the Senate, his name would have gone into his-
tory among those of the greatest of legislators.

Sixteen years after the death of Lincoln public
feeling was again moved to its depth by the assas-

356 THE EEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

sination of Garfield. The cry seemed to pass from
mouth to mouth through the streets faster than a
messenger could carry the news, " The President
has been shot." It chanced to reach me just as I
was entering my office. I at once summoned my
messenger and directed him to go over to the
White House, and see if anything unusual had
happened, but gave him no intimation of my fears.
He promptly returned with the confirmation of the
report. The following are extracts from my jour-
nal at the time : —

" July 2, Saturday : At 9.20 this morning President
Garfield was shot by a miserable fellow named Guiteau,
as he was passing through the Baltimore and Potomac
E. R. station to leave Washington. One ball went
through the upper arm, making a flesh wound, the other
entered the right side on the back and cannot be found ;
supposed to have lodged in the liver. In the course of
the day President rapidly weakened, and supposed to be
dying from hemorrhage."

" Sunday morning : President stiU living and rallied
during the day. Small chance of recovery. At night
alarming symptoms of inflammation were exhibited, and
at midnight his case seemed almost hopeless."

"Monday: President slightly better this morning,
improving throughout the day."

" July 6. This p. m. sought an interview with Dr.
Woodward at the White House, to talk of an apparatus
for locating the ball by its action in retarding a rapidly
revolving el. magnet. I hardly think the plan more than
theoretically practical, owing to the minuteness of the
action."

" The President still improving, but great dangers are

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 357

yet to come, and nothing has been found of the ball,
which is supposed to have stayed in the liver because,
were it anywhere else, symptoms of irritation by its pre-
sence would have been shown."

"July 9. This is Saturday evening. Met Major
Powell at the Cosmos Club, who told me that they would
like to have me look at the air-cooling projects at the
White House. Published statement that the physicians
desired some way to cool the air of the President's room
had brought a crowd of projects and machines of all
kinds. Among other things, a Mr. Dorsey had got from
New York an air compressor such as is used in the Vir-
ginia mines for transferring power, and was erecting
machinery enough for a steamship at the east end of the
house in order to run it."

Dr. Woodward was a surgeon of the army, who
had been on duty at Washington since the civU
war, in charge of the Army Medical Museum.
Among his varied works here, that in micro-pho-
tography, in which he was a pioneer, gave him a
wide reputation. His high standing led to his
being selected as one of the President's physicians.
To him I wrote a note, offering to be of any use I
could in the matter of cooling the air of the Pre-
sident's chamber. He promptly replied with a re-
quest to visit the place, and see what was being
done and what suggestions I could make. Mr.
Dorsey's engine at the east end was dispensed
with after a long discussion, owing to the noise
it would make and the amount of work necessary
to its final installation and operation.

Among the problems with which the surgeons

358 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

had to wrestle was that of locating the ball. The
question occurred to me whether it was not pos-
sible to do so by the influence produced by the
action of a metaUic conductor in retarding the
motion of a rapidly revolving magnet, but the
effect would be so small, and the apparatus to be
made so delicate, that I was very doubtful about
the matter. If there was any one able to take hold
of the project successfully, I knew it would be
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the tele-
phone. When I approached him on the subject,
he suggested that the idea of locating the ball had
also occurred to him, and that he thought the best
apparatus for the purpose was a telephonic one
which had been recently developed by Mr. Hughes.
As there could be no doubt of the superiority of
his project, I dropped mine, and he went forward
with his. In a few days an opportunity was given
him for actually trying it. The result, though
rather doubtful, seemed to be that the ball was
located where the surgeons supposed it to be.
When the autopsy showed that their judgment had
been at fault, Mr. Bell admitted his error to Dr.
Woodward, adding some suggestion as to its cause.
"Expectant attention," was Woodward's reply.

I found in the basement of the house an appa-
ratus which had been brought over by a Mr. Jen-
nings from Baltimore, which was designed to cool
the air of dairies or apartments. It consisted of
an iron box, two or three feet square, and some
five feet long. In this box were suspended cloths,

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 359

kept cool and damp by the water from melting ice
contained in a compartment on top of the box.
The air was driven through the box by a blower,
and cooled by contact with the wet cloths. But
no effect was being produced on the temperature
of the room.

One conversant with physics will see one fatal
defect in this appliance. The cold of the ice, if I
may use so unscientific an expression, went pretty
much to waste. The air was in contact, not with
the ice, as it should have been, but with ice-water,
which had already absorbed the latent heat of
melting.

Evidently the air should be passed over the un-
melted ice. The question was how much ice would
be required to produce the necessary cooling ? To
settle this, I instituted an experiment. A block of
ice was placed in an adjoining room in a current
of air with such an arrangement that, as it melted,
the water would trickle into a vessel below. After
a certain number of minutes the melted water was
measured, then a simple computation led to a know-
ledge of how much heat was absorbed from the air
per minute by a square foot of the surface of the
ice. From this it was easy to calculate from the
known thermal capacity of air, and the quantity of
the latter necessary per minute, how many feet of
cooling surface must be exposed. I was quite sur-
prised at the result. A case of ice nearly as long
as an ordinary room, and large enough for men
to walk about in it, must be provided. This was

360 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

speedily done, supports were erected for the blocks
of ice, the case was placed at the end of Mr. Jen-
nings's box, and everything gotten in readiness for
directing the air current through the receptacle,
and into the room through tubes which had already
been prepared.

It happened that Mr. Jennings's box was on the
line along which the air was being conducted, and
I was going to get it out of the way. The owner
implored that it should be allowed to remain, sug-
gesting that the air might just as well as not con-
tinue tg pass through it. The surroundings were
those in which one may be excused for not being
harsh. Such an outpouring of sympathy on the
part of the public had never been seen in Washing-
ton since the assassination of Lincoln. Those in
charge were overwhelmed with every sort of con-
trivance for relieving the sufferings of the illustri-
ous patient. Such disinterested efforts in behalf
of a public and patriotic object had never been
seen. Mr. Jennings had gone to the trouble and
expense of bringing his apparatus all the way
from Baltimore to Washington in order to do what
in him lay toward the end for which all were
striving. To leave his box in place could not do
the slightest harm, and would be a gratification
to him. So I let it stand, and the air continued
to pass through it on its way to the ice chest-
While these arrangements were in progress
three officers of engineers of the navy reported
under orders at the White House, to do what they

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 361

could toward the cooling of the air. They were
Messrs. William L. Baillie, Eichard Inch, and
W. S. Moore. All four of us cooperated in the
work in a most friendly way, and when we got
through we made our reports to the Navy Depart-
ment. A few weeks later these reports were
printed in a pamphlet, partly to correct a wrong
impression about the Jennings cold-boS. Regular
statements had appeared in the local evening paper
that the air was being cooled by this useless con-
trivance. Their significance first came out several
months later, on the occasion of an exhibition of
mechanical or industrial implements at Boston.
Among these was Mr. Jennings's cold-box, which
was exhibited as the instrument that had cooled
the air of President Garfield's chamber.

More light yet was thrown on the case when the
question of rewarding those who had taken part in
treating the President, or alleviating his sufferings
in any way, came before Congress. Mr. Jennings
was, I believe, among the claimants. Congress
found the task of making the proper awards to
each individual to be quite beyond its power at
the time, so a lump sum was appropriated, to be
divided by the Treasury Department according to
its findings in each particular case. Before the
work of making the awards was completed, I left
on the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope to
observe the transit of Venus, and never learned
what had been done with the claims of Mr. Jen-
nings. It might naturally be supposed that when

362 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

an official report to the Navy Department showed
that he had no claims whatever except those of a
patriotic citizen who had done his best, which was
just nothing at all, to promote the common end,
the claim would have received Httle attention. Pos-
sibly this may have been the case. But I do not
know what the outcome of the matter was.

Shortly after the death of the President, I had a
visit from an inventor who had patented a method
of cooHng the air of a room by ice. He claimed
that our work at the Executive Mansion was an
infringement on his patent. I replied that I could
not see how any infringement was possible, because
we had gone to work in the most natural way,
without consulting any previous process whatever,
or even knowing of the existence of a patent.
Surely the operation of passing air over ice to
cool it could not be patentable.

He invited me to read over the statement of his
claims. I found that although this process was
not patented in terms, it was practically patented
by claiming about every possible way in which ice
coidd be arranged for cooling purposes. Placing
the ice on supports was one of his claims ; this we
had undoubtedly done, because otherwise the pro-
cess could not have been carried out. In a word,
the impression I got was that the only sure way
of avoiding an infringement would have been to
blindfold the men who put the ice in the box, and
ask them to throw it in peUmell. Every method
of using judgment in arranging the blocks of ice
he had patented.

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 363

I had to acknowledge that his claim of infringe-
ment might have some foundation, and inquired
what he proposed to do in the case. He replied
that he did not wish to do more than have his
priority recognized in the matter. I replied that
I had no objection to his doing this in any way he
could, and he took his leave. Nothing more, so
far as I am aware, was done in his case. But I
was much impressed by this as by other examples
I have had of the same kind, of the loose way in
which our Patent Ofl&ce sometimes grants patents.

I do not think the history of any modern muni-
cipality can show an episode more extraordinary
or, taken in connection with its results, more in-
structive than what is known as the " Shepherd
regime " in Washington. What is especially in-
teresting about it is the opposite views that can be
taken of the same facts. As to the latter there
is no dispute. Yet, from one point of view, Shep-
herd made one of the most disastrous failures on
record in attempting to carry out great works,
while, from another point of view, he is the author
of the beautiful Washington of to-day, and entitled
to a public statue in recognition of his services.
As I was a resident of the city and Kved in my
own house, I was greatly interested in the proposed
improvements, especially of the particular street on
which I lived. I was also an eye-witness to so
much of the whole history as the public was cog-
nizant of. The essential facts of the case, from

364 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

the two opposing points of view, are exceedingly
simple.

One fact is the discreditable condition of the
streets of Washington during and after the civil
war. The care of these was left entirely to the
local municipaUty. Congress, so far as I know,
gave no aid except by paying its share of street
improvements in front of the public buildings. It
was quite out of the power of the residents, who
had but few men of wealth among them, to make
the city what it ought to be. Congress showed
no disposition to come to the help of the citizens
in this task.

In 1871, however, some public-spirited citizens
took the matter in hand and succeeded in having
a new government estabHshed, which was modeled
after that of the territories of the United States.
There was a governor, a legislature, and a board
of public works. The latter was charged with the
improvements of the streets, and the governor was
ex officio its president. The first governor was
Henry D. Cooke, the banker, and Mr. Shepherd
was vice-president of the board of pubHc works
and its leading member. Mr. Cooke resigned after
a short term, and Mr. Shepherd was promoted to
his place. He was a plumber and gas-fitter by
trade, and managed the leading business in his
line in Washington. Through the two or three
years of his administration the city directory still
contained the entry —

Shepherd, Alex. R. & Co., plumbers and gas-fitters,
910 Pa. Ave. N. W.

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 365

In recent years he had added to his plumbing busi-
ness that of erecting houses for sale. He had
had no experience in the conduct of pubUc busi-
ness, and, of course, was neither an engineer nor a
financier. But such was the energy of his char-
acter and his personal influence, that he soon be-
came practically the whole government, which he
ran in his own way, as if it were simply his own
business enlarged. Of the conditions which the
law imposes on contracts, of the numerous and
complicated problems of engineering involved in
the drainage and street systems of a great city, of
the precautions to be taken in preparing plans for
so immense a work, and of the legal restraints
under which it should be conducted, he had no spe-
cial knowledge. But he had in the highest degree
a quality which will bear different designations ac-
cording to the point of view. His opponents would
call it unparalleled recklessness; his supporters,
boldness and enterprise.

Such were the preliminaries. Three years later
the results of his efforts were made known by an
investigating committee of Congress, with Senator
Allison, a political friend, at its head. It was found
that with authority to expend $6,000,000 in the
improvement of the streets, there was an actual or
supposed expenditure of more than f 18,000,000,
and a crowd of additional claims which no man
could estimate, based on the work of more than
one thousand principal contractors and an unknown
number of purchasers and sub-contractors. Chaos

366 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

reigned supreme. Some streets were still torn up
and impassable ; others completely paved, but done
so badly that the pavements were beginning to rot
almost before being pressed by a carriage. A debt
had been incurred which it was impossible for the
local municipaUty to carry and which was still pil-
ing up.

For all this Congress was responsible, and man-
fully shouldered its responsibility. Mr. Shepherd
was legislated out of office as an act of extreme
necessity, by the organization of a government at
the head of which were three commissioners. The
feeling on the subject may be inferred from the
result when President Grant, who had given Shep-
herd his powerful support all through, nominated
him as one of the three commissioners. The Sen-
ate rejected the nomination, with only some half
dozen favorable votes.

The three commissioners took up the work and
carried it on in a conservative way. Congress
came to the help of the mimicipaUty by bearing
one half the taxation of the District, on the very
sound basis that, as it owned about one half of the
property, it should pay one half the taxes.

The spirit of the time is illustrated by two lit-
tle episodes. The reservation on which the public
library founded by Mr. Carnegie is now built, was
then occupied by the Northern Liberties Market, one
of the three principal markets of the city. Being
a pubHc reservation, it had no right to remain there
except during the pleasure of the authorities. Due

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 367

notice was given to the marketmen to remove the
structures. The owners were dilatory in doing so,
and probably could not see why they should be
removed when the ground was not wanted for any
other purpose, and before they had time to find a
new location. It was understood that, if an at-
tempt was made to remove the buildings, the mar-
ketmen would apply to the courts for an injunc-
tion. To prevent this, an arrangement was made
by which the destruction of the buildings was to
commence at dinner-time. At the same time, ac-
cording to current report, it was specially arranged
that all the judges to whom an application could be
made should be invited out to dinner. However
this may have been, a large body of men appeared
upon the scene in the course of the evening and
spent the night in destroying the buildings. With
such energy was the work carried on that one
marketman was killed and another either wounded
or seriously injured in trying to save their wares
from destruction. The indignation against Shep-
herd was such that his life ^as threatened, and it
was even said that a body-guard of soldiers had to
be supplied by the War Department for his pro-
tection.

The other event was as comical as this was tragic.
It occurred while the investigating committee of
Congress was at its work. The principal actors in
the case were Mr. Harrington, secretary of the local
government and one of Mr. Shepherd's assistants,
the chief of pohce, and a burglar. Harrington

368 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

produced an anonymous letter, warning him that
an attempt would be made in the course of a cer-
tain night to purloin from the safe in which they
were kept, certain government papers, which the
prosecutors of the case against Shepherd were
anxious to get hold of. He showed this letter to
the chief of police, who was disposed to make
light of the matter. But on Harrington's urgent
insistence the two men kept watch about the pre-
mises on the night in question. They were in the
room adjoining that in which the records were
kept, and through which the robber would have
to pass. In due time the latter appeared, passed
through the room and proceeded to break into the
safe. The chief wanted to arrest him immedi-
ately, but Harrington asked him to wait, in order
that they might see what the man was after, and
especially what he did with the books. So they
left and took their stations outside the door. The
burglar left the building with the books in a
satchel, and, stepping outside, was confronted by
the two men.

I believe every burglar of whom history or fic-
tion has kept any record, whether before or after
this eventful night, when he broke open a safe and,
emerging with his booty, found himself confronted
by a policeman, took to his heels. Not so this bur-
glar. He walked up to the two men, and with the
utmost unconcern asked if they could tell him where
Mr. Columbus Alexander Uved. Mr. Alexander, it
should be said, was the head man in the prosecu-

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 369

tion. The desired information being conveyed to
the burglar, he went on his way to Mr. Alexander's
house, followed by the two agents of the law. Ar-
riving there, he rang the beU.

In the ordinary course of events, Mr. Alexander
or some member of his family would have come to
the door and been informed that the caller had a
bundle for him. A man just awakened from a
sound sleep and coming downstairs rubbing his
eyes, would not be likely to ask any questions of
such a messenger, but would accept the bundle and
lock the door again. Then what a mess the prose-
cution would have been in ! Its principal promoter
detected in collusion with a burglar in order to get
possession of the documents necessary to carry on
his case !

It happened, however, that Mr. Alexander and
the members of his household aU slept the sleep of
the just and did not hear the bell. The patience of
the policeman was exhausted and the burglar was
arrested and lodged in jail, where he was kept for
several months. Public curiosity to hear the bur-
glar's story was brought to a high pitch, but never
gratified. Before the case came to trial the prisoner
was released on straw bail and never again found.
I do not think the bottom facts, especially those
connected with the anonymous letter, were ever
brought to light. So every one was left to form
his own theory of what has since been known as
the " Safe Burglary Conspiracy."

What seems at present the fashionable way of

370 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMEK

looking at the facts is this : Shepherd was the man
who planned the beautiful Washington of to-day,
and who carried out his project with unexampled
energy until he was stopped through the clamor of
citizens who did not want to see things go ahead so
fast. Other people took the work up, but they only
carried out Shepherd's ideas. The latter, therefore,
should have all the credit due to the founder of the
new Washington.

The story has always seemed to me most inter-
esting as an example of the way in which pubHc
judgment of men and things is likely to be influ-
enced. Public sentiment during the thirty years
which have since elapsed has undergone such a
revolution in favor of Shepherd that a very likely
outcome will be a monument to commemorate his
work. But it is worth while to notice the mental
processes by which the public now reaches this con-
clusion. It is the famiUar and ordinarily correct
method of putting this and that together.

This is one of the most beautiful cities in the
United States, of which Americans generally are
proud when they pay it a visit.

That is the recollection of the man who com-
menced the work of transforming an unsightly,
straggling, primitive town into the present Wash-
ington, and was condemned for what he did.

These two considerations form the basis of the
conclusion, all intermediate details dropping out of
sight and memory. The reckless maladministra-
tion of the epoch, making it absolutely necessary

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON 371

to introduce a new system, has no place in the
picture.

There is also a moral to the story, which is more
instructive than pleasant. The actors in the case
no doubt believed that i£ they set about their work
in a conservative and law-abiding way, spending
only as much money as could be raised, Congress
would never come to their help. So they deter-
mined to force the game, by creating a situation
which would speedily lead to the correct solution of
the problem. I do not think any observant person
will contest the proposition that had Shepherd gone
about his work and carried it to a successful con-
clusion in a peaceable and law-abiding way, — had
he done nothing to excite public attention except
wisely and successfully to administer a great public
work, — his name would now have been as little
remembered in connection with what he did as
we remember those of Ketchem, Phelps, and the
other men who repaired the wreck he left and made
the city what it is to-day.

In my mind one question dominates all others
growing out of the case : What will be the moral
effect on our children of holding up for their imi-
tation such methods as I have described ?

xm

MISCELLANEA

If the "Great Star^Catalogue Case" is not sur-
rounded with such mystery as would entitle it to
a place among causes cUebres, it may well be so
classed on account of the novelty of the questions
at issue. It afEords an instructive example of the
possibility of cases in which strict justice cannot
be done through the established forms of legal pro-
cedure. It is also of scientific interest because,
although the question was a novel one to come
before a court, it belongs to a class which every
leader in scientific investigation must constantly
encounter in meting out due credit to his assistants.
The plaintiff, Christian H. F. Peters, was a Dane
by birth, and graduated at the University of Berlin
in 1836. During the earher years of his manhood
he was engaged in the trigonometrical survey of
the kingdom of Naples, where, for a time, he had
charge of an observatory or some other astro-
nomical station. It is said that, Kke many other
able European youth of the period, he was impli-
cated in the revolution of 1848, and had to flee the
kingdom in consequence. Five years later, he
came to the United States. Here his first patron

MISCELLANEA 373

was Dr. B. A. Gould, who procured for him first a
position on the Coast Survey, and then one as his
assistant at the Dudley Observatory in Albany.
He was soon afterward appointed professor of
astronomy and director of the Litchfield Obser-
vatory at Hamilton College, where he spent the
remaining thirty years of his Hfe. He was a man
of great learning, not only in subjects pertaining
to astronomy, but in ancient and modern lan-
guages. The means at his disposal were naturally
of the slenderest kind ; but he was the discoverer
of some forty asteroids, and devoted himself to
various astronomical works and researches with
great ability.

Of his personality it may be said that it was ex-
tremely agreeable so long as no important difEer-
ences arose. What it would be in such a case can
be judged by what follows. Those traits of char-
acter which in men like him may be smoothed
down to a greater or less extent by marital disci-
pline were, in the absence of any such agency,
maintained in all their strength to his latest years.

The defendant, Charles A. Borst, was a gradu-
ate of the coUege and had been a favorite pupil of
Peters. He was a man of extraordinary energy
and working capacity, ready to take hold in a busi-
ness-like way of any problem presented to him, but
not an adept at making problems for himself. His
power of assimilating learning was unusually de-
veloped ; and this, combined with orderly business
habits, made him a most effective and valuable

374 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

assistant. The terms of his employment were of
the first importance in the case. Mr. Litchfield
of New York was the patron of the observatory ;
he had given the trustees of Hamilton College a
capital for its support, which suf&ced to pay the
small salary of the director and some current ex-
penses, and he also, when the latter needed an as-
sistant, made provision for his employment. It
appears that, in the case of Borst, Peters fre-
quently paid his salary for considerable periods at
a time, which sums were afterward reimbursed to
him by Mr. Litchfield.

I shall endeavor to state the most essential facts
involved as they appear from a combination of the
sometimes widely different claims of the two par-
ties, with the hope of showing fairly what they
were, but without expecting to satisfy a partisan
of either side. Where an important difference of
statement is irreconcilable, I shall point it out.

In his observations of asteroids Peters was con-
tinually obliged to search through the pages of
astronomical literature to find whether the stars he
was using in observation had ever been catalogued.
He long thought that it would be a good piece of
work to search aU the astronomical journals and
miscellaneous collections of observations with a
view of making a complete catalogue of the posi-
tions of the thousands of stars which they con-
tained, and pubHshing it in a single volume for the
use of astronomers situated as he was. The work
of doing this was little more than one of routine

MISCELLANEA 375

search and calculation, -which any well-trained
youth could take up ; but it was naturally quite
without the power of Peters to carry it through
with his own hand. He had employed at least one
former assistant on the work, Professor John G.
Porter, but very little progress was made. Now,
however, he had a man with the persistence and
working capacity necessary to carry out the plan.

There was an irreconcilable difference between
the two parties as to the terms on which Borst
went to work. According to the latter, Peters
suggested to him the credit which a young man
would gain as one of the motives for taking up the
job. But plaintiff denied that he had done any-
thing more than order him to do it. He did not,
however, make it clear why an assistant at the
Litchfield Observatory should be officially ordered
to do a piece of work for the use of astronomy
generally, and having no special connection with
the Litchfield Observatory.

However this may be, Borst went vigorously to
work, repeating all the calculations which had been
made by Peters and former assistants, with a view
of detecting errors, and took the work home with
him in order that his sisters might make a great
mass of supplementary calculations which, though
not involved in the original plan, would be very
conducive to the usefulness of the result. One or
two of these bright young ladies worked for about
a year at the job. How far Peters was privy to
what they did was not clear ; according to his

376 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

claim he did not authorize their employment to do
anything but copy the catalogue.

By the joint efforts of the assistant and his two
sisters, working mostly or entirely at their own
home, the work was brought substantially to a con-
clusion about the beginning of 1888. Borst then
reported the completion to his chief and submitted
a proposed title-page, which represented that the
work was performed by Charles A. Borst under
the direction of Christian H. F. Peters, Professor
of Astronomy, etc. According to Borst's account,
Peters tore up the paper, opened the stove door,
put the fragments into the fire, and then turned
on the assistant with the simple order, " Bring me
the catalogue ! "

This was refused, and a suit in replevin was im-
mediately instituted by Peters. The ablest counsel
were engaged on both sides. That of the plaintiff
was Mr. Elihu Root, of New York, afterward Secre-
tary of War, one of the leading members of the
New York bar, and well known as an active mem-
ber of the reform branch of the Republican party
of that city. For the defendant was the law firm
of an ex-senator of the United States, the Messrs.
Kernan of Utica.

I think the taking of evidence and the hearing
of arguments occupied more than a week. One
claim of the defendant would, if accepted, have
brought the suit to a speedy end. Peters was an
employee of the corporation of Hamilton College,
and by the terms of his appointment all his work

MISCELLANEA 377

at the Litchfield Observatory belonged to that in-
stitution. Borst was summoned into the case as
an official employee of the Litchfield Observatory.
Therefore the corporation of the college was the
only authority which had power to bring the suit.
But this point was disposed of by a decision of
the judge that it was not reasonable, in view of
the low salary received by the plaintiff, to deprive
him of the right to the creations of his own talent.
He did not, however, apply this principle of legal
interpretation to the case of the defendant, and not
only found for the plaintiff, but awarded damages
based on the supposed value of the work, includ-
ing, if I understand the case aright, the value of
the work done by the young ladies. It would seem,
however, that in officially perfecting the details of
his decision he left it a little indefinite as to what
papers the plaintiff was entitled to, it being very
difficult to describe in detail papers many of which
he had never seen. Altogether it may be feared
that the decision treated the catalogue much as the
infant was treated by the decision of Solomon.

However this might be, the decision completely
denied any right of the defendant in the work.
This feature of it I thought very unjust, and pub-
lished in a Utica paper a review of the case in terms
not quite so judicial as I ought to have chosen. I
should have thought such a criticism quite a breach
of propriety, and therefore would never have ven-
tured upon it but for an eminent example then fresh
in my mind.

378 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Shortly after the Supreme Court of the United
States uttered its celebrated decision upholding the
constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act, I hap-
pened to be conversing at an afternoon reception
with one of the judges, Gray, who had sustained
the decision. Mr. George Bancroft, the historian,
stepped up, and quite surprised me by expressing
to the judge in quite vigorous language his strong
dissent from the decision. He soon afterward pub-
lished a pamphlet reviewing it adversely. I supposed
that what Mr. Bancroft might do with a decision of
the Supreme Court of the United States, a humbler
individual might be allowed to do with the decision
of a local New York judge.

The defense appealed the case to a higher court
of three judges, where the finding of the low^r
court was sustained by a majority of two to one.
It was then carried to the Court of Appeals, the
highest in the State. Here the decision was set
aside on what seemed to me the common sense
ground that the court had ignored the rights of
the defendant in the case, who certainly had some,
and it must therefore be remanded for a new trial.

Meantime Peters had died ; and it is painful to
think that his death may have been accelerated
by the annoyances growing out of the suit. One
morning, in the summer of 1890, he was found
dead on the steps of his little dwelling, having ap-
parently fallen in a fit of apoplexy or heart failure
as he was on his way to the observatory the night
before. His heirs had no possible object in push-

MISCELLANEA 379

ing the suit ; probably his entire little fortune was
absorbed in the attendant expenses.

When the difference with Borst was first heard of
it was, I think, proposed to Peters by several of his
friends, including myself, that the matter should be
submitted to an arbitration of astronomers. But
he would Hsten to nothing of the sort. He was
determined to enforce his legal rights by legal
measures. A court of law was, in such a case, at
an enormous disadvantage, as compared with an
astronomical board of arbitration. To the latter all
the circumstances would have been familiar and
simple, while the voluminous evidence, elucidated
as it was by the arguments of counsel on the two
sides, failed to completely enlighten the court on
the points at issue. One circumstance will illustrate
this. Some allusion was made during the trial to
Peters's work while he was abroad, in investigating
the various manuscripts of the Almagest of Ptolemy
and preparing a commentary and revised edition of
Ptolemy's Catalogue of Stars. This would have
been an extremely important and original work,
most valuable in the history of ancient astronomy.
But the judge got it mixed up in his mind with the
work before the court, and actually supposed that
Peters spent his time in Europe in searching ancient
manuscripts to get material for the catalogue in
question. He also attributed great importance to
the conception of the catalogue, forgetting that, to
use the simile of a writer in the " New York Even-
ing Post," such a conception was of no more value

380 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

than the conception of a railroad from one town to
another by a man who had no capital to build it.
No original investigation was required on one side
or the other. It was simply a huge piece of work
done by a young man with help from his sisters,
suggested by Peters, and now and then revised by
him in its details. It seemed to me that the solution
ofEered by Borst was eminently proper, and I was
willing to say so, probably at the expense of Peters's
friendship, on which I set a high value.

I have always regarded the work on Ptolemy's
catalogue of stars, to which allusion has just been
made, as the most important Peters ever under-
took. It comprised a critical examination and com-
parison of all the manuscripts of the Almagest in
the libraries of Europe, or elsewhere, whether in
Arabic or other languages, with a view of learning
what light might be thrown on the doubtful ques-
tions growing out of Ptolemy's work. At the
Litchfield Observatory I had an opportunity of ex-
amining the work, especially the extended commen-
taries on special points, and was so impressed by
the learning shown in the research as to express a
desire for its speedy completion and publication.
In fact, Peters had already made one or more com-
munications to the National Academy of Sciences
on the subject, which were supposed to be equiva-
lent to presenting the work to the academy for
publication. But before the academy put in any
claim for the manuscript, Mr. E. B. Knobel of Lon-

MISCELLANEA 381

don, a well-known member of the Eoyal Astrono-
mical Society, wrote to Peters's executors, stating
that he was a collaborator with Peters in preparing
the work, and as such had a claim to it, and wished
to complete it. He therefore asked that the papers
should be sent to him. This was done, but during
the twelve years which have since elapsed, nothing
more has been heard of the work. No one, so far
as I know, ever heard of Peters's making any allu-
sion to Mr. Knobel or any other collaborator. He
seems to have always spoken of the work as exclu-
sively his own.

Among the psychological phenomena I have wit-
nessed, none has appeared to me more curious than
a susceptibility of certain minds to become imbued
with a violent antipathy to the theory of gravita-
tion. The anti-gravitation crank, as he is commonly
called, is a regular part of the astronomer's expe-
rience. He is, however, only one of a large and
varied class who occupy themselves with what an
architect might consider the drawing up of plans
and specifications for a universe. This is, no
doubt, quite a harmless occupation ; but the queer
part of it is the seeming belief of the architects
that the actual universe has been built on their
plans, and runs according to the laws which they
prescribe for it. Ether, atoms, and nebulae are the
raw material of their trade. Men of otherwise
sound intellect, even college graduates and lawyers,
sometimes engage in this business. I have often

382 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

wondered whether any of these men proved that,
in all the common schools of New York, the power
which conjugates the verbs comes, through some
invisible conduit in the earth, from the falls of
Niagara. This would be quite like many of the
theories propounded.

Babbage's " Budget of Paradoxes " is a goodly
volume descriptive of efEorts of this sort. It was
supplemented a year or two ago by a most excellent
and readable article on eccentric literature, by Mr.
John Fiske, which appeared in the " Atlantic
Monthly." Here the author discussed the subject
so well that I do not feel like saying much about
it, beyond giving a little of my own experience.

Naturally the Smithsonian Institution was, and I
presimie still is, the great authority to which these
men send their productions. It was generally a
rule of Professor Henry always to notice these com-
munications and try to convince the correspondents
of their fallacies. Many of the papers were re-
ferred to me ; but a Httle experience showed that it
was absolutely useless to explain anything to these
" paradoxers." Generally their first communication
was exceedingly modest in style, being evidently
designed to lead on the unwary person to whom it
was addressed. Moved to sympathy with so well-
meaning but erring an inquirer, I woidd point out
wherein his reasoning was deficient or his facts at
fault. Back would come a thunderbolt demonstrat-
ing my incapacity to deal with the subject in terms
80 strong that I could not have another word to
say.

MISCELLANEA 383

The American Association for the Advancement
of Science was another attraction for such men.
About thirty years ago there appeared at one of its
meetings a man from New Jersey who was as much
incensed against the theory of gravitation as if it
had been the source of all human woe. He got ad-
mission to the meetings, as almost any one can, but
the paper he proposed to read was refused by the
committee. He watched his chance, however, and
when discussion on some paper was invited, he got
up and began with the words, " It seems to me that
the astronomers of the present day have gravitation
on the brain." This was the beginning of an impas-
sioned oration which went on in an unbroken tor-
rent until he was put down by a call for the next
paper. But he got his chance at last. A meeting
of Section Q was called ; what this section was the
older members will recall and the reader may be
left to guess. A programme of papers had been
prepared, and on it appeared Mr. Joseph Treat, on
Gravitation. Mr. Treat got up with great alacrity,
and, amid the astonishment and laughter of all pro-
ceeded to read his paper with the utmost seriousness.

I remember a visit from one of these men with
great satisfaction, because, apparently, he was an
exception to the rule in being amenable to reason.
I was sitting in my office one morning when a
modest-looking gentleman opened the door and
looked in.

" I would like to see Professor Newcomb."

" Well, here he is."

384 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

" You Professor Newcomb ? "

" Yes."

" Professor, I have called to tell you that I don't
beUeve in Sir Isaac Newton's theory of gravita-
tion ! "

" Don't believe in gravitation ! Suppose you
jump out of that window and see whether there is
any gravitation or not."

" But I don't mean that. I mean " —

" But that is all there is in the theory of gravi-
tation ; if you jump out of the window you '11 fall
to the ground."

" I don't mean that. What I mean is I don't
believe in the Newtonian theory that gravitation
goes up to the moon. It does n't extend above the
air."

" Have you ever been up there to see ? "

There was an embarrassing pause, during which
the visitor began to look a little sheepish.

" N-no-o," he at length replied.

" Well, I have n't been there either, and until one
of us can get up there to try the experiment, I
don't believe we shall ever agree on the subject."

He took his leave without another word.

The idea that the facts of nature are to be
brought out by observation is one which is singu-
larly foreign not only to people of this class, but
even to many sensible men. When the great comet
of 1882 was discovered in the neighborhood of the
sun, the fact was telegraphed that it might be seen
with the naked eye, even in the sun's neighbor-

MISCELLANEA 385

hood. A news reporter came to my o£Bce with this
statement, and wanted to know if it was really true
that a comet could be seen with the naked eye right
alongside the sun.

" I don't know," I replied ; " suppose you go out
and look for yourself ; that is the best way to settle
the question."

The idea seemed to him to be equally amusing
and strange, and on the basis of that and a few
other insipid remarks, he got up an interview for
the " National Republican " of about a column in
length.

I think there still exists somewhere in the North-
west a communistic society presided over by a genius
whose of&cial name is Koresh, and of which the reH-
gious creed has quite a scientific turn. Its funda-
mental doctrine is that the surface of the earth on
which we live is the inside of a hollow sphere, and
therefore concave, instead of convex, as generally
supposed. The oddest feature of the doctrine is
that Koresh professes to have proved it by a method
which, so far as the geometry of it goes, is more
rigorous than any other that science has ever ap-
plied. The usual argument by which we prove to
our children the earth's rotundity is not purely
geometric. When, standing on the seashore, we
see the sails of a ship on the sea horizon, her hull
being hidden because it is below, the inference
that this is due to the convexity of the surface is
based on the idea that light moves in a straight
Une. If a ray of light is curved toward the sur-

386 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

face, we should have the same appearance, although
the earth might be perfectly flat. So the Koresh
people professed to have determined the figure of
the earth's surface by the purely geometric method
of taking long, broad planks, perfectly squared at
the two ends, and using them as a geodicist uses
his base apparatus. They were mounted on wooden
supports and placed end to end, so as to join per-
fectly. Then, geometrically, the two would be in a
straight line. Then the first plank was picked up,
carried forward, and its end so placed against that
of the second as to fit perfectly ; thus the continu-
ation of a straight hue was assured. So the opera-
tion was repeated by continually alternating the
planks. Recognizing the fact that the ends might
not be perfectly square, the planks were turned
upside down in alternate settings, so that any de-
fect of this sort would be neutralized. The result
was that, after they had measured along a mile or
two, the plank was found to be gradually approach-
ing the sea sand until it touched the ground.

This quasi-geometric proof was to the mind of
Koresh positive. A horizontal straight line con-
tinued does not leave the earth's surface, but grad-
ually approaches it. It does not seem that the
measurers were psychologists enough to guard
against the efEect of preconceived notions in the
process of applying their method.

It is rather odd that pure geometry has its full
share of paradoxers. Runkle's " Mathematical
Monthly " received a very fine octavo volume, the

MISCELLANEA 387

printing of which must have been expensive, by
Mr. James Smith, a respectable merchant of Liver-
pool. This gentleman maintained that the circum-
ference of a circle was exactly SVs times its diam-
eter. He had pestered the British Association
with his theory, and come into collision with an
eminent mathematician whose name he did not
give, but who was very likely Professor DeMor-
gan. The latter undertook the desperate task of
explaining to Mr. Smith his error, but the other
evaded him at every point, much as a supple lad
might avoid the blows of a prize-fighter. As in
many cases of this kind, the reasoning was envel-
oped in a mass of verbiage which it was very diffi-
cult to strip off so as to see the real framework
of the logic. When this was done, the syllogism
would be found to take this very simple form : —

The ratio of the circumference to the diameter
is the same in all circles. Now, take a diameter
of 1 and draw round it a circumference of SVs- In
that circle the ratio is SVs ; therefore, by the major
premise, that is the ratio for all circles.

The three famous problems of antiquity, the
duplication of the cube, the quadrature of the cir-
cle, and the trisection of the angle, have all been
proved by modern mathematics to be insoluble by
the ride and compass, which are the instrimients
assumed in the postulates of Euclid. Yet the
problem of the trisection is frequently attacked by
men of some mathematical education. I think it
was about 1870 that I received from Professor

388 THE EEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Henry a communication coming from some institu-
tion of learning in Louisiana or Texas. The writer
was sure he had solved the problem, and asked that
it might receive the prize supposed to be awarded
by governments for the solution. The construc-
tion was very comphcated, and I went over the whole
demonstration without being able at first to detect
any error. So it was necessary to examine it yet
more completely and take it up point by point.
At length I found the fallacy to be that three lines
which, as drawn, intersected in what was to the
eye the same point on the paper, were assumed to
intersect mathematically in one and the same point.
Except for the complexity of the work, the sup-
posed construction would have been worthy of
preservation.

Some years later I received, from a teacher, I
think, a supposed construction, with the state-
ment that he had gone over it very carefully and
could find no error. He therefore requested me to
examine it and see whether there was anything
wrong. I told him in reply that his work showed
that he was quite capable of appreciating a geo-
metric demonstration ; that there was surely some-
thing wrong in it, because the problem was known
to be insoluble, and I would like him to try again
to see if he could not find his error. As I never
again heard from him, I suppose he succeeded.

One of the most curious of these cases was that
of a student, I am not sure but a graduate, of the
University of Virginia, who claimed that geometers

MISCELLANEA 389

were in error in assuming that a line had no thick-
ness. He published a school geometry based on
his views, which received the endorsement of a
well-known New York school official and, on the
basis of this, was actually endorsed, or came very
near being endorsed, as a text-book in the public
schools of New York.

Prom my correspondence, I judge that every
civilized country has its share of these paradoxers.
I am almost constantly in receipt of letters not
only from America, but from Europe and Asia,
setting forth their views. The following are a few
of these productions which arrived in the course
of a single season.

Baltimore, Sept. 29, 1897.
104 Collington Ave.

Prof. Simon Newcomb:

Dear Sir, — Though a straiiger to you, Sir, I take
the liberty to enlist your interest in a Cause, — so grand,
so beautiful, as to eclipse anything ever presented to the
highest tribunal of human intellect and intuition.

Trusting you to be of liberal mind, Sir, I have mailed
you specimen copy of the " Banner of Light," which will
prove somewhat explanatory of my previous remarks.

Being a student of Nature and her wonderful laws,
as they operate in that subtle realm of human life, —
the soul, for some years, I feel well prepared to answer
inquiries pertaining to this almost unknown field of sci-
entific research, and would do so with much pleasure, as
I am desirous to contribute my mite to the enlightenment
of mankind upon this most important of all subjects.
Yours very truly,

P. S. — Would be pleased to hear from you. Sir.

390 THE REMINISCENCES OP AN ASTRONOMER

Mexico, 16 Oct. 1897.
Dear Sir, — I beg to inform you that I have for-
warded by to days mail to your adress a copy of my 20th
Century planetary spectacle with a clipping of a german
newspaper here. Thirty hours for 3000 years is to day
better accepted than it was 6 years ago when I wrote it, al-
though it called even then for some newspaper comment,
especially after President Cleveland's election, whose like-
ness has been recognized on the back cover, so has been
my comet, which was duly anounced by an Italian astro-
nomer 48 hours before said election. A hint of Jupiters
fifth satelite and Mars satelites is also to be found in my
planetary spectacle but the most striking feature of such
a profetio play is undoubtedly the Allegory of the Paris
fire my entire Mercury scene and next to it is the Mars
scene with the wholesale retreat of the greecs that is just
now puzzling some advanced minds. Of cours the mu-
sical satelites represent at the same time the european
concert with the disgusted halfuroons face in one corner
and Egypt next to it and there can be no doubt that the
world is now about getting ready to applaud such a grand
realistic play on the stage after even the school children
of Chicago adopted a great part of my moral scuol-club
(act II) as I see from the Times Herald Oct. 3d. and
they did certainly better than the Mars Fools did in
N. Y. 4 years ago with that Dire play, A trip to Mars.
The only question now is to find an enterprising scientist
to not only recomend my play but put some 1500$ up
for to stage it at once perhaps you would be able to do
so.

Yours truly

G. A. Kastelic, Hotel Buenavista.

In the following Dr. Diaforus of the Malade
Imaginaire seems to have a formidable rival.

MISCELLANEA 391

Chicago, Oct. 31, 1897.
Me. Newcombb :

Dear Sir, — I forwarded you photographs of several
designs which demonstrate by illustrations in physics,
metaphysics, phrenology, mechanics. Theology, Law
magnetism Astronomy etc — the only true form and
principles of universal government, and the greatest life
sustaining forces in this universe, I would like to explain
to you and to some of the expert government detectives
every thing in connection with those illustrations since
1881 ; I have traveled over this continent ; for many
years I have been persecuted, my object in sending you
those illustrations is to see if you could influence some
Journalist in this City, or in Washington to illustrate
and write up the interpretation of those designs, and
present them to the public through the press.

You know that very few men can grasp or compre-
hend in what relation a plumb line stands to the sciences,
or to the nations of this earth, at the present time, by
giving the correct interpretation of Christian, Hebrew,
& Mohammedian prophesy, this work presents a system
of international law which is destined to create harmony
peace and prosperity.

sincerely yours

1035 Monadnock Bid

Chicago 111
C/o L. L. Smith.

P. S. The very law that moulds a tear ; and bids it
trickel from its source ; that law preserves this earth a
sphere, and guides the planets in their course.

392 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Oed Neb Nove 18, 1897.

Pbofessok Simon Newcomb
Washington D C

Dear Sir, — As your labors have enabled me to pro-
tect my honor And prove the Copernican Newton Keplar
and Gallileo theories false I solicit transportation to
your department so that I can come and explain the
whole of Nature and so enable you to obtain the true
value of the Moon from both latitudes at the same
instant.

My method of working does not accord with yours
Hence will require more time to comprehend I have
asked Professor James E Keeler to examine the work
and forward his report with this application for trans-
portation

Yours truly

One day in July, 1895, I was perplexed by the
receipt of a cable dispatch from Paris in the fol-
lowing terms : —

WiU you act ? Consult Gould. Furber.

The dispatch was accompanied by the statement
that an immediate answer was requested and pre-
paid. Dr. Gould being in Cambridge, and I in
Washington, it was not possible to consult him
immediately as to what was meant. After consul-
tation with an official of the Coast Survey, I reached
the conclusion that the request had something to
do with the International Metric Commission, of
which Dr. Gould was a member, and that I was
desired to act on some committee. As there could
be no doubt of my willingness to do this, I returned

MISCELLANEA 393

an affirmative answer, and wrote to Dr. Gould to
know exactly what was required. Great was my
surprise to receive an answer stating that he knew
nothing of the subject, and could not imagine
what was meant. The mystery was dispelled a
few days later by a visit from Dr. E. R. L. Gould,
the well-known professor of economics, who soon
after extended his activities into the more practical
line of the presidency of the Suburban Homes and
Improvement Company of New York. He had just
arrived from Paris, where a movement was on foot
to induce the French government to make such
modifications in the regulations governing the in-
struction and the degrees at the French univer-
sities as would make them more attractive to
American students, who had hitherto frequented
the German universities to the almost entire exclu-
sion of those of France. It was desired by the
movers in the affair to organize an American com-
mittee to act with one already formed at Paris ; and
it was desired that I should undertake this work.

I at first demurred on two grounds. I could
not see how, with propriety, Americans could ap-
pear as petitioners to the French government to
modify its educational system for their benefit.
Moreover, I did not want to take any position
which would involve me in an effort to draw Amer-
ican students from the German imiversities.

He replied that neither objection could be urged
in the case. The American committee would act
only as an adviser to the French committee, and

394 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

its sole purpose was to make known to the latter
what arrangements as regarded studies, examina-
tions, and degrees would be best adapted to meet
the views and satisfy the needs of American stu-
dents. There was, moreover, no desire to draw
American students from the German universities;
it was only desired to give them greater facilities
in Paris.

The case was fortified by a letter from M. Michel
Breal, member of the Institute of France, and head
of the Franco- American committee, as it was called
in Paris, expressing a very flattering desire that I
should act.

I soon gave my consent, and wrote to the presi-
dents of eight or ten of our leading universities
and several Washington officials interested in edu-
cation, to secure their adhesion. With a single
exception, the responses were unanimous in the
affirmative, and I think the exception was due to a
misapprehension of the objects of the movement.
The views of all the adhering Americans were then
requested, and a formal meeting was |ield, at which
they were put into shape. It is quite foreign to
my present object to go into details, as everything
of interest in connection with the matter will be
found in educational journals. One point may,
however, be mentioned. The French committee
was assured that whatever system of instruction and
of degrees was offered, it must be one in which
no distinction was made between French and for^
eigners. American students would not strive for

MISCELLANEA 395

a degree which was especially arranged for them
alone.

I soon found that the movement was a much
more complex one than it appeared at first sight,
and that all the parties interested in Paris did not
belong to one and the same committee. Not long
after we had put our suggestions into shape, I was
gratified by a visit from Dom de la Tremblay,
prior of the Benedictine Convent of Santa Maria,
in Paris, a most philanthropic and attractive gen-
tleman, who desired to promote the object by es-
tablishing a home for the American students when
they should come. Knowing the temptations to
which visiting youth would be exposed, he was
desirous of founding an establishment where they
could live in the best and most attractive surround-
ings. He confidently hoped to receive the active
support of men of wealth in this country in carry-
ing out his object.

It was a somewhat difficult and delicate matter
to explain to the philanthropic gentleman that
American students were not likely to collect in a
home specially provided for them, but would prefer
to find their own home in their own way. I tried
to do it with as little throwing of cold water as
was possible, but, I fear, succeeded only gradually.
But after two or three visits to New York and
Washington, it became evident to him that the
funds necessary for his plan could not be raised.

The inception of the affair was still not clear to
me, I learned it in Paris the year following. Then

396 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

I found that the movement was started by Mr.
Furber, the sender of the telegram, a citizen of
Chicago, who had scarcely attained the prime of
life, but was gifted with that indomitable spirit of
enterprise which characterizes the metropolis of the
West. What he saw of the educational institu-
tions of Paris imbued him with a high sense of their
value, and he was desirous that his fellow-country-
men should share in the advantages which they
ofEered. To induce them to do this, it was only
necessary that some changes should be made in
the degrees and in the examinations, the latter
being too numerous and the degrees bearing no
resemblance to those of Germany and the United
States. He therefore addressed a memorial to the
Minister of Public Instruction, who was much im-
pressed by the view of the case presented to him,
and actively favored the formation of a Franco-
American committee to carry out the object.
Everything was gotten ready for action, and it only
remained that the prime mover should submit evi-
dence that educators in America desired the pro-
posed change, and make known what was wanted.
Why I should have been selected to do this I do
not know, but suppose it may have been because I
had just been elected a foreign associate of the In-
stitute, and was free from trammels which might
have hindered the action of men who held official
positions in the government or at the heads of uni-
versities. The final outcome of the affair was the
estabhshment in the universities of France of the

MISCELLANEA 397

degree of Doctor of the University, which might be
given either in letters or in science, and which was
expected to correspond as nearly as possible to the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Germany and
America.

One feature of the case was brought out which
may be worthy of attention from educators. In a
general way it may be said that our Bachelor's de-
gree does not correspond to any well-defined stage
of education, implying, as it does, something more
than that foundation of a general liberal education
which the degree implies in Europe, and not quite
so much as the Doctor's degree. I found it very
difficult, i£ not impossible, to make our French
friends understand that our American Bachelor's
degree was something materially higher than the
Baccalaureate of th,e French Lycee, which is con-
ferred at the end of a course midway between our
high school and our college.

From education at the Sorbonne I pass to the
other extreme. During a stay in Harper's Ferry in
the autumn of 1887, 1 had an object lesson in the
state of primary education in the mountain regions
of the South. Accompanied by a lady friend, who,
Uke myself, was fond of climbing the hills, I walked
over the Loudon heights into a sequestered valley,
out of direct communication with the great world.
After visiting one or two of the farmhouses, we
came across a school by the roadside. It was the
hour of recess, and the teacher was taking an active

398 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

part in promoting the games in which the children
were engaged. It was suggested hy one of us
that it would be of interest to see the methods of
this school; so we approached the teacher on the
subject, who very kindly offered to call his pupils
together and show us his teaching.

First, however, we began to question him as to
the subjects of instruction. The curriculum seemed
rather meagre, as he went over it. I do not think
it went beyond the three E's.

" But do you not teach grammar as well as read-
ing ? " I asked.

" No, I am sorry to say, I do not. I did want
to teach grammar, but the people all said that they
had not been taught grammar, and had got along
very well without it, and did not see why the time
of the children should be taken up by it."

" If you do not teach grammar from the book,
you could at least teach it by practice in composi-
tion. Do you not exercise them in writing com-
positions ? "

" I did try that once, and let me tell you how it
turned out. They got up a story that I was teach-
ing the children to write love letters, and made
such a clamor about it that I had to stop."

He then kindly offered to show us what he did
teach. The school was called together and words to
speU were given out from a dictionary. They had
got as far as "patrimony," and went on from that
word to a dozen or so that followed it. The words
were spelled by the children in turn, but i;iothing

MISCELLANEA 399

was said about the definition or meaning of the
word. He did not explain whether, in the opinion
of the parents, it was feared that disastrous events
might follow if the children knew what a " patri-
mony " was, but it seems that no objections were
raised to their knowing how to spell it.

We thanked him and took our leave, feeling
that we were well repaid for our visit, however it
might have been with the teacher and his school.

I have never been able to confine my attention
to astronomy with that exclusiveness which is com-
monly considered necessary to the highest success
in any profession. The lawyer finds almost every
branch of human knowledge to be not only of in-
terest, but of actual professional value, but one can
hardly imagine why an astronomer should concern
himself with things mundane, and especially with
sociological subjects. But there is very high pre-
cedent for such a practice. Quite recently the fact
has been brought to light that the great founder
of modern astronomy once prepared for the gov-
ernment of his native land a very remarkable paper
on the habit of debasing the currency, which was
so prevalent during the Middle Ages.^ The paper
of Copernicus is, I believe, one of the strongest ex-
positions of the evil of a debased currency that had
ever appeared. Its tenor may be judged by the
opening sentence, of which the following is a free
translation : —

1 Prowe : Nicolaus Copernicus, Bd. ii. (Berlin, 1884), p. 33.

400 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Innumerable though the evils are with which king-
doms, principalities, and republics are troubled, there
are four which in my opinion outweigh all others, — war,
death, famine, and debasement of money. The three
first are so evident that no one denies them, but it is not
thus with the fourth.

A certain interest in political economy dates with
me from the age of nineteen, when I read Say's
work on the subject, which was at that time in very
wide circulation. The question of protection and
free trade was then, as always, an attractive one.
I inclined towards the free trade view, but stiU felt
that there might be another side to the question
which I found myself unable fully to grasp. I
remember thinking it quite possible that Smith's
" Wealth of Nations " might be supplemented by
a similar work on the strength of nations, in which
not merely wealth, but everything that conduces to
national power should be considered, and that the
result of the inquiry might lead to practical con-
clusions different from those of Smith. Very able
writers, among them Henry C. Carey, had espoused
the side of protection, but for some years I had not
time to read their works, and therefore reserved
my judgment until more light should appear.

Thus the matter stood until an accident impelled
me to look into the subject. About 1862 or 1863
President Thomas HiU, of Harvard University, paid
a visit to Washington. I held him in very high
esteem. He was a mathematician, and had been
the favorite student of Professor Benjamin Peirce ;

MISCELLANEA 401

but I did not know that he had interested himself
in poUtical economy until, on the occasion in ques-
tion, I passed an evening with him at the house
where he was a guest. Here he told me that in a
public lecture at Philadelphia, a few evenings be-
fore, he had informed his hearers that they had
amongst them one of the greatest philosophers of
the time, Henry C. Carey. He spoke of his works
in such enthusiastic terms, describing especially his
law of the tendency of mankind to be attracted
towards the great capitals or other centres of popu-
lation, that I lost no time in carefully reading
Carey's " Principles of Social Science."

The result was much like a slap in the face.
With every possible predisposition to look favor-
ably on its teachings, I was unable to find any-
thing in them but the prejudiced judgments of a
one-sided thinker, fond of brUliant general proposi-
tions which really had nothing serious to rest upon
either in fact or reason. The foUovnng parody on
his method occurred to me : —

The physicians say that quinine tends to cure
intermittent fever. If this be the case, then where
people use most quinine, they will have least inter-
mittent fever. But the facts are exactly the oppo-
site. Along the borders of the lower Mississippi,
where people take most quinine, they suffer most
from fever ; therefore the effect of quinine is the
opposite of that alleged.

I earnestly wished for an opportunity to discuss
the matter further with Mr. Hill, but it was never
offered.

402 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

During the early years of the civil war, when
the country was flooded with an irredeemable cur-
rency, I was so much disturbed by what seemed
to me the unwisdom of our financial poUcy, that
I positively envied the people who thought it all
right, and therefore were free from mental pertur-
bation on the subject. I at length felt that I could
keep silent no longer, and as the civil war was
closing, I devoted much time to writing a httle
book, " Critical Examination of Our Financial Pol-
icy during the Southern EebelHon." I got this
published by the Appletons, but had to pay for
the production. It never yielded enough to pay
the cost of printing, as is very apt to be the case
with such a book when it is on the unpopular side
and by an unknown author. It had, however, the
pleasant result of bringing me into friendly rela-
tions vpith two of the most eminent financiers of
the country, Mr. Hugh McCulloch and Mr. George
S. Coe, the latter president of one of the principal
banks of New York. The comphments which these
men paid to the book were the only compensation
I got for the time and money expended upon it.

In 1876 the " North American Review "published
a centennial number devoted to articles upon our
national progress during the first century of our
existence. I contributed the discussion of our
■work in exact science. Natural science had been
cultivated among us with great success, but I was
obliged to point out our backward condition in

MISCELLANEA 403

every branch of exact science, which was more
marked the more mathematical the character of the
scientific work. In pure mathematics we seemed
hopelessly behind in the race.

I suppose that every writer who discusses a sub-
ject with a view of influencing the thought of the
pubUc, must be more or less discouraged by the
small amount of attention the best he can say is
likely to receive from his fellow-men. No matter
what his own opinion of the importance of the
matters he discusses, and the results that might
grow out of them if men would only give them due
attention, they are lost in the cataract of utterances
poured forth from the daily, weekly, and monthly
press. I was therefore much pleased, soon after the
article appeared, to be honored with a visit from
President Gilman, who had been impressed with
my views, and wished to discuss the practicability
of the Johns Hopkins University, which was now
being organized, doing something to promote the
higher forms of investigation among us.

One of the most remarkable mathematicians of
the age, Professor J. J. Sylvester, had recently sev-
ered his connection with the Royal Military Acad-
emy at Woolich, and it had been decided to invite
him to the chair of mathematics at the new univer-
sity. It was considered desirable to have men of
similar world-wide eminence in charge of the other
departments in science. But this was found to be
impracticable, and the policy adopted was to find
young men whose reputation was yet to be made,

404 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

and who would be the leading men of the future,
instead of belonging to the past.

All my experience would lead me to say that the
selection of the coming man in science is almost as
difficult as the selection of youth who are to become
senators of the United States. The success of the
university in finding the young men it wanted, has
been one of the most remarkable features in the
history of the Johns Hopkins University. Of this
the lamented Rowland afEords the most striking,
but by no means the only instance. Few could
have anticipated that the modest and scarcely
known youth selected for the chair of physics would
not only become the leading man of his profession
in our country, but one of the chief promoters of
scientific research among us. Mathematical study
and research of the highest order now commenced,
not only at Baltimore, but at Harvard, Columbia,
and other centres of learning, until, to-day, we are
scarcely behind any nation in our contributions to
the subject.

The development of economic study in our coun-
try during the last quarter of the last century is
hardly less remarkable than that of mathematical
science. A great impulse in this direction was
given by Professor R. T. Ely, who, when the Johns
Hopkins University was organized, became its lead-
ing teacher in economics. He had recently come
from Germany, where he had imbibed what was
supposed to be a new gospel in economics, and he

MISCELLANEA 405

now appeared as the evangelist of what was termed
the historical school. My own studies were of
course too far removed from this school to be a
factor in it. But, so far as I was able, I fought
the idea of there being two schools, or of any ne-
cessary antagonism between the results of the two
methods. It was true that there was a marked dif-
ference in form between them. Some men preferred
to reach conclusions by careful analysis of human
nature and study of the acts to which men were led
in seeking to carry out their own ends. This was
called the old-school method. Others preferred to
study the problem on a large scale, especially as
shown in the economic development of the country.
But there could be no necessary difference between
the conclusions thus reached.

One curious fact, which has always been over-
looked in the history of economics in our country,
shows how purely partisan was the idea of a sep-
aration of the two schools. The fact is that the
founder of the historic school among us, the man
who first introduced the idea, was not Ely, but
David A. Wells. Up to the outbreak of the civil
war, Mr. Wells had been a writer on scientific
subjects without any special known leaning toward
econonucs ; but after it broke out he published a
most noteworthy pamphlet, setting forth the re-
sources of our country for carrying on war and
paying a debt, in terms so strong as to command
more attention than any similar utterance at the
time. This led to his appointment as Special

406 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

Commissioner of Revenue, mth the duty of col-
lecting information devising the best methods of
raising revenue. His studies in this line were very-
exhaustive, and were carried on by the methods
of the historic school of economics. I was almost
annoyed to find that, if any economic question was
presented to him, he rushed ofE to the experience
of some particular people or nation — it might be
Sweden or Australia — instead of going down to
fundamental principles. But I could never get
him interested in this hind of analysis.

One of Professor Ely's early movements resulted
in the organization of the American Economic As-
sociation. His original plan was that this society
should have something like a creed to which its
members were expected to subscribe. A discussion
of the whole subject appeared in the pages of
" Science," a number of the leading economists of
the country being contributors to it. The outcome
of the whole matter has been a triumph for what
most men wiU now consider reason and good sense.
The Economic Association was scarcely more than
organized when it broke loose from all creeds and
admitted into its ranks investigators of the subject
belonging to every class. I think the last discus-
sion on the question of two schools occurred at
the New York meeting, about 1895, after which
the whole matter was dropped and the association
worked together as a unit.

As Professor Ely is stiU a leader on the stage, I
desire to do him justice in one point. I am able

MISCELLANEA 407

to do so because of what I have always regarded
as one of the best features of the Johns Hopkins
University — the unity of action which pervaded
its work. There is a tendency in such institutions
to be divided up into departments, not only inde-
pendent of each other, but with little mutual help
or sympathy. Of course every department has
the best wishes of every other, and its coopera-
tion when necessary, but the tendency is to have
nothing more than this. In 1884, after the resig-
nation of Professor Sylvester, I was invited by
President Oilman to act as head of the depart-
ment of mathematics. I could not figure as the
successor of Sylvester, and therefore suggested
that my title should be professor of mathematics
and astronomy. The examinations of students for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy were then, as
now, all conducted by a single " Board of Uni-
versity Studies," in which all had equal powers,
although of course no member of the board took
an active part in cases which lay entirely outside of
his field. But the general idea was that of mutual
cooperation and criticism all through. Each pro-
fessor was a factor in the department of another in
a helpful and not an antagonistic way, and all held
counsel on subjects where the knowledge of all was
helpful to each. I cannot but think that the won-
derful success of the Johns Hopkins University is
largely due to this feature of its activity, which
tended to broaden both professors and students
ahke.

408 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

In pursuance of this system I for several years
took part in the examinations of students of eco-
nomics for their degrees. I found that Professor
Ely's men were always well grounded in those
principles of economic theory which seemed to me
essential to a comprehension of the subject on its
scientific side.

Being sometimes looked upon as an economist,
I deem it not improper to disclaim any part in
the economic research of to-day. What I have
done has been prompted by the conviction that the
greatest social want of the age is the introduction
of sound thinking on economic subjects among the
masses, not only of our own, but of every other
country. This kind of thinking I have tried to
promote in our own country by such books as
" A Plain Man's Talk on the Labor Question," and
" Principles of Political Economy."

My talks with Professor Henry used to cover a
wide field in scientific philosophy. Adherence to
the Presbyterian church did not prevent his being
as uncompromising an upholder of modern scien-
tific views of the universe as I ever knew. He
was especially severe on the delusions of spiritual-
ism. To a friend who once told him that he had
seen a " medium " waft himself through a window,
he replied, " Judge, you never saw that ; and if
you think you did, you are in a dangerous mental
condition and need the utmost care of your family
and your physician."

MISCELLANEA 409

Among the experiences which I heard him re^
late more than once, I think, was one with a noted
medium. Henry was quite intimate with President
Lincoln, who, though not a believer in spiritual-
ism, was from time to time deeply impressed by
the extraordinary feats of spirituaHstic performers,
and naturally looked to Professor Henry for his
views and advice on the subject. Quite early in
his administration one of these men showed his
wonderful powers to the President, who asked him
to show Professor Henry his feats.

Although the latter generally avoided all contact
-with such men, he consented to receive him at the
Smithsonian Institution. Among the acts proposed
was that of making sounds in various quarters of
the room. This was something which the keen
senses and ready experimental faculty of the pro-
fessor were well qualified to investigate. He turned
his head in various positions while the sounds were
being emitted. He then turned toward the man
with the utmost firmness and said, " I do not know
how you make the sounds, but this I perceive very
clearly : they do not come from the room but from
your person." It was in vain that the operator
protested that they did not, and that he had no
knowledge how they were produced. The keen
ear of his examiner could not be deceived.

Sometime afterward the professor was traveling
in the east, and took a seat in a railway car beside
a young man who, finding who his companion was,
entered into conversation with him, and informed

410 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

him that he was a maker of telegraph and elec-
trical instruments. His advances were received in
so friendly a manner that he went further yet, and
confided to Henry that his ingenuity had heen
called into requisition by spiritual mediums, to
whom he furnished the apparatus necessary for the
manifestations. Henry asked him by what medi-
ums he had been engaged, and was surprised to
find that among them was the very man he had
met at the Smithsonian. The sounds which the
medium had emitted were then described to the
young man, who in reply explained the structure
of ^ the apparatus by which they were produced,
which apparatus had been constructed by himself.
It was fastened around the muscular part of the
upper arm, and was so arranged that clicks would
be produced by a simple contraction of the muscle,
iinaccompanied by any motion of the joints of the
arm, and entirely invisible to a bystander.

During the Philadelphia meeting of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of Science,
held in 1884, a few members were invited by one
of the foreign visitors, Professor Fitzgerald of Dub-
lin, I think, to a conference on the subject of psy-
chical research. The English society on this subject
had been organized a few years before, and the
question now was whether there was interest enough
among us to lead to the organization of an Ameri-
can Society for Psychical Research. This was de-
cided in the affirmative ; the society was soon after
formed, with headquarters in Boston, and I was

MISCELLANEA 411

elected its first president, a choice which Powell,
of Washington, declared to be ridiculous in the
highest degree.

On accepting this position, my first duty was to
make a careful study of the publications of the
parent society in England, with a view of learning
their discoveries. The result was far from hopeful.
I found that the phenomena brought out lacked
that coherence and definiteness which is character-
istic of scientific truths. Remarkable effects had
been witnessed ; but it was impossible to say, Do
so and so, and you will get such an effect. The
best that could be said was, perhaps you will get an
effect, but more likely you will not. I could not
feel any assurance that the society, with all its dili-
gence, had done more than add to the mass of
mistakes, misapprehensions of fact, exaggerations,
illusions, tricks, and coincidences, of which human
experience is full. In the course of a year or two
I delivered a presidential address, in which I pointed
out the difficulties of the case and the inconclusive-
ness of the supposed facts gathered. I suggested
further experimentation, and called upon the Eng-
lish society to learn, by trials, whether the mental
influences which they had observed to pass from
mind to mind under specially arranged conditions,
would still pass when a curtain or a door sepa-
rated the parties. Fifteen years have since elapsed,
and neither they nor any one else has settled this
most elementary of all the questions involved. The
only conclusion seems to be that only in exceptional

412 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

cases does any effect pass at all ; and when it does,
it is just as likely to be felt halfway round the world
as behind a curtain in the same room.

Shortly after the conference in Philadelphia I
had a long wished-for opportunity to witness and
investigate what, from the descriptions, was a won-
der as great as anything recorded in the history of
psychic research or spirituaUsm. Early in 1885 a
taU and well-built young woman named Lulu Hurst,
also known as the " Georgia magnetic girl," gave
exhibitions in the eastern cities which equaled or
exceeded the greatest feats of the Spirituahsts. On
her arrival in Washington invitations were sent to
a number of our prominent scientific men to witness
a private exhibition which she gave in advance of
her public appearance. I was not present, but
some who attended were so struck by her perform-
ance that they arranged to have another exhibi-
tion in Dr. Graham Bell's laboratory. I can give
the best idea of the case if I begin with an account
of the performance as given by the eye-witnesses at
the first trial. We must remember that this was
not the account of mere wonder-seekers, but of
trained scientific men. Their account was in sub-
stance this : —

A light rod was firmly held in the hands of the
tallest and most muscular of the spectators. Miss
Lulu had only to touch the rod with her fingers
when it would begin to go through the most
extraordinary manoeuvres. It jerked the holder
around the room with a power he was unable to

MISCELLANEA 413

resist, and finally threw him down into a corner
completely discomfited. Another spectator was
then asked to take hold of the rod, and Miss Lulu
extended her arms and touched each end with the
tip of her finger. Immediately the rod began to
whirl around on its central axis with such force
that the skin was nearly taken off the holder's
hands in his efforts to stop it.

A heavy man being seated in a chair, man and
chair were Ufted up by the fair performer placing
her hands against the sides. To substantiate the
claim that she herself exerted no force, chair and
man were Ufted without her touching the chair at
aU. The sitter was asked to put his hands under
the chair ; the performer put her hands around and
under his in such a way that it was impossible for
her to exert any force on the chair except through
his hands. The chair at once lifted him up with-
out her exerting any pressure other than the touch
upon his hands.

Several men were then invited to hold the chair
still. The performer then began to deftly touch
it with her finger, when the chair again began to
jump about in spite of the efforts of three or four
men to hold it down.

A straw hat being laid upon a table crown down-
wards, she laid her extended hands over it. It was
lifted up by what seemed an attractive force simi-
lar to that of a magnet upon an armature, and was
in danger of being torn to pieces in the effort of
any one holding it to keep it down, though she

414 THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

could not possibly have had any hold upon the
object.

Among the spectators were physicians, one or
more of whom grasped Miss Lulu's arms while
the motions were going on, without finding any
symptoms of strong muscular action. Her pulse
remained normal throughout. The objects which
she touched seemed endowed with a force which
was wholly new to science.

So much for the story. Now for the reality.
The party appeared at the Volta Laboratory, ac-
cording to arrangement. Those having the mat-
ter in charge were not professional mystifiers of
the public, and showed no desire to conceal any-
thing. There was no darkening of rooms, no put-
ting of hands under tables, no fear that spirits
would refuse to act because of the presence of
some skeptic, no trickery of any sort.

We got up such arrangements as we could for a
scientific investigation of the movements. One of
these was a rolling platform on which Miss Lulu
was requested to stand while the forces were ex-
erted. Another device was to seat her on a plat-
form scale while the chair was lifting itself.

These several experiments were tried in the
order in which I have mentioned them. I took
the wonderful staff in my hands, and Miss Lulu
placed the palms of her hands and extended them
against the staff near the ends, while I firmly
grasped it with my two hands in the middle. Of
course this gave her a great advantage in the

MISCELLANEA 415

leverage. I was then asked to resist the staff with
all my force, with the added assurance from Mrs.
Hurst, the mother, that the resistance would be in
vain.

Although the performer began with a delicate
touch of the staff, I noticed that she changed the
position of her hands every moment, sometimes
seizing the staff with a firm grip, and that it never
moved in any direction unless her hands pressed it
in that direction. As nearly as I could estimate,
the force which she exerted might have been equal
to forty pounds, and this exerted first in one way
and then in another was enough to upset the equi-
Ubrium of any ordinary man, especially when the
jerks were so sudden and unexpected that it was
impossible for one to brace himself against them.
After a scene of rather undignified contortion I
was finally compelled to retire in defeat, but with-
out the slightest evidence of any other force than
that exerted by a strong, muscular young woman.
I asked that the rod might be made to whirl in
my hands in the manner which has been described,
but there was clearly some mistake in this whirl,
for Miss Lulu knew nothing on the subject.

Then we proceeded to thp chair performance,
which was repeated a number of times. I noticed
that although, at the beginning, the sitter held his
fingers between the chair and the fingers of the
performer, the chair would not move until Miss
Lulu had the ball of her hand firmly in connection
with it. Even then it did not actually lift the

416 THE KEMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER

sitter from the ground, but was merely raised up
behind, the front legs resting on the ground,
whereupon the sitter was compelled to get out.
This performance was repeated a number of times
without anything but what was commonplace.

In order to see whether, as claimed, no force
was exerted on the chair, the performer was in-
vited to stand on the platform of the scales while
making the chair move. The weights had been
so adjusted as to balance a weight of forty pounds
above her own. The result was that after some
general attempts to make the chair move the lever
chcked, showing that a lifting force exceeding
forty pounds was being exerted by the young
woman on the platform. The click seemed to de-
moralize the operator, who became unable to con-
tinue her efforts.

The experiment of raising a hat turned out
equally simple, and the result of all the trials was
only to increase my skepticism as to the whole
doctrine of unknown forces and media of com-
munication between one mind and another. I am
now likely to remain a skeptic as to every branch
of " occult science " until I find some manifestation
of its reahty more conclusive than any I have yet
been able to find.

INDEX

INDEX

Absence of mind, examples of, 73,
169.

Academy of Science, a wonld-be,
351.

Academy of Sciences, Paris, 327.

Adams, Prof. John C, 220; intel-
lectual capacity, 282 ; politics,
283.

Agnesi, Donna Maria, 294.

Agafisiz, Louis, discusses Origin of
Species, 70.

Airy, Sir George B., Observations
of Transit of Venus, 166 ; hospi-
tality, 285 ; poetic taste, 286 ;
executive ability, 286 ; methods
of work, 289.

Alexander, Columbus, 368.

Anderson, Sir James, 300.

Angle, trisection of, 887.

Argelander, Prof., master of ob-
servational astronomy, 318, 319.

Atlantic Cable, the first, 300.

Auwers, the great astronomer, 306.

Bacon, Mr., teacher at Bedeqne, 9.

Baillie, William, U. S. engineer,
361.

Baird, Spencer F., 240.

Bancroft, George, reviews judicial
decision of Star Catalogue crse,
378

Barnard, E. E., 190.

Barnard, Gen. John 6., 335.

Bartlett, William P. G., 83.

Belknap, Admiral G. H., 228.

Bell, Alexander Graham, tries to lo-
cate ball in Garfield's body, 358.

Black, Jeremiah, 168, 169.

BlacHe, Prof. J. S., 294.

Bond, George P., 250.

Booth, Edwin, 157.

Borst, Charles A., 873.

Boss, Prof. Lewis, 124; 280.

Bowditch, Nathaniel, 1.
Bradford, Isaac, 74.
Brewster, Elder, 3.
Brown, Prof. S. J., 125.
Bumham, S. W., 188.

Campbell, William W., 190.

Carey, Henry C, 400.

Casey, Thomas L., Jr., 174.

Casserly, Eugene, 128.

Cassini, astronomer, of Paris Obser-
vatory, 331.

Cayley, Prof. Arthur, 280.

Chandler, Captain Balph, U. S. N.,
171.

Chandler, W. E., 126.

Chauvenet, WiUiam, 111.

ChevrenI, M., his remarkable age,
327.

Circle, quadrature of, 387.

Clark, Alvan, 129, 144.

Clark, Alvan, & Sons, character of
the firm, 147.

Cleveland, Keith, 224.

Cobbett, William, 7, 53.

Coe, George S., financier, 402.

Coffin, J. H. C, 111.

Combe, George, 4, 16.

Commune of Paris, 321-326.

Comstock, G. C, 126.

Cooke, Thomas, & Sons, 133.

Cox, Jacob D., 258.

Crank, the anti-gravitation, 381 ; a
reasonable, 388.

Cranks, specimen letters from, 389.

Darwin's " Origin of Species," dis-
cussion of, 70.

Dawes, Henry L., 82.

Dawes, Kev. W. E., 148.

Davis, Charles H., 63 ; becomes su-
perintendent at Kaval Observa-
tory, 107.

420

INDEX

Dayton, A. G., 126.

Delanney, Charles, indorses Prof.
Newcomb, 317 ; director of Paris
Observatory, 319 ; attractive per-
sonality, 329, 380.

Draper, Dr. Henry, expert in astro-
nomical photography, 171, 223.

Draper, Dr. John W., 250.

Da<Uey Observatory troubles, 80.

Early, Gen. Jubal A., raid of, 339.

Eastman, John R., 107, 274.

Eclipse, solar, of 1860, journey to
observe, 88.

Economics, studies in, 399 ; alleged
schools of, 405.

Education in mountain regions of
South, 397.

Eggleston, Edward, 89.

Eliot, Charles W., 74.

Elkin,Dr. W.L., 176.

Elliott, Benjamin S., 50.

Ely, Prof. E. T., as economist, 404 ;
organizes American Economic As-
sociation, 406 ; merits as teacher,
408.

Evarts, WiUiam M., 241.

Eveleth, G. W., 55.

Fell, maker of optical discs, 185.

Ferguson, James, 111.

Ferrell, William, 72, 88.

Field, Cyrus W., 128.

Fiske, John, on eccentric literature,
382.

Fixed stars, Paris conference regard-
ing, 230.

Floyd, Richard S., 186.

France, universities of, 392.

Franklin, Admiral, 122.

Furber, Mr., starts movement for ad-
mission of American students in
French universities, 396.

Garfield, James A., first acquaint-
ance with, 353; his early life,
354 ; injustice done him, 354 ; bis
intellectual gifts, 355 ; assassina-
tion of, 356.

Geological Survey, circumstances
leading to origin of, 252-255 ; at-
tacks on, 261.

Gibraltar, determination of the lon-
gitude of, 284, 299.

Gill, Sir David, 176.

Gillis, Capt. J. M., superintendent

of Naval Observatory, 99 ; obtains
new transit circle, 105.

Gihnan, Daniel C, 403.

Gladstone, William Ewart, meeting
with, 273, 276.

Glaisher, J. W. L., 72.

Goldsborough, Admiral, 340.

Gould, Benjamin A., personality,
78 ; Dudley Observatory director-
ship, 80 ; candidate for Kaval Ob-
servatory director. 111.

Gould, Dr. E. R. L., 393.

Gravitation detestable to some
minds, 381.

Green, Capt. F. M., 284.

Greenwich Observatory, situation,
285 ; value of observations at,
288.

Grubb, Sir Howard J., 156, 185.

Hagar, Judge, 189.

Hale, Eugene P., 123.

Hale, George E., 126.

Hall, Asaph, 107 ; discovers satel-
lites of Mars, 141.

Hamlin, Hannibal, 128.

Harkness, William, appointed to
Naval Observatory, 107; shares
honor of discovering brightest
line in spectrum of sun^s corona,
113; director of Observatory,
180.

Harrington, attorney, 367.

Harvard Observatory, Prof. New-
comb called to directorship of,
211 ; Pickering's directorship,
212.

Hassler, J. J. S., 264.

Hansen, Prof., greatest master of
celestial mechanics, 315, 316.

Hayden, Prof. F. V., 253.

Hayes, Rutherford B., 242, 259.

Hedrick, Prof., 73.

Hell, Father Maximilian, his alleged
forgery, 154.

Henry, Prof. Joseph, Prof. New-
comb's relations with, 1, 54, 58,
161 ; characteristics, 234-237 ; on
spiritualism, 408.

Herbert, HUary A., 231.

Hewitt, A. S., 255.

Hilgard, J. E., 1, 59 ; in charge of
Coast Survey, 65, 128.

HiU, George W., 218, 219, 221.

Hill, Thomas Prescott, 400.

Holcombe, Lieut. J. H. L., 174.

INDEX

421

Holden, Prof. E. S., 184-194.

Horsford, E. N., 74.

Hutbard, Prof. J. S., head astro-
nomer of Naval Observatory, 98 ;
in charge of mnral circle, 102.

Huggins, Sir William, 279.

Hughes, Thomas, 272.

Humphreys, Gen., chief of engi-
neers, 256.

Hurst, Lulu, the " Georgia magnetic
girl," exhibitions of, 412-416.

Illusion, an astronomical, 137.
Inch, Bichard, United States engi-
neer, 361.

Jennings, Mr., cooling device of,

358.
Jewett, C. C, 237.

Keeler, James E., 191.
Kelvin, Lord, 248.
Kerr, Prof., 73.
King, Clarence, 258, 259.
Knobel, E. B., 380.
Koresh, his theory, 385.

Lamar, Judge Lucius, 264.

Langley, Prof. Samuel P., 240.

Language, advantage of not know-
ing a, 306.

Laplace, the " M^chanique Celeste "
of, 1.

Lardner's " Popular Lectures on
Science and Art," 19.

Lawrence, Prof. Smith J., 56.

Lee, Gen. Robert E., 339.

Lee's " Tables and Formula," 56.

Leverrjer, M., two views of, 328 ;
meeting with, 330; his merits,
331.

Leverrier and Hansen's systems of
planetary computation, 219.

Lick, James, 182.

Lick Observatory, origin of, 182 ;
location discussed, 187 ; telescope
at, 185 ; Holden's administration,
192 ; Keeler's administration, 194 ;
Campbell's administration, l94.

Lincoln, Pres., his war-time recep-
tions, 342 ; assassination of, 344 ;
trial of assassins, 345.

Lister, Lord, 278.

Litchfield Observatory, founder of,
374.

Loomis, E. J., 74.

Lowe, Mr. (Viscount Sherbrooke),
276.

Mahan, Prof. D. H., 335.

Mars, discovery of the satellites of,
141.

Marsh, Prof. 0. C, exposure of In-
dian ring, 263 ; relation to " Wild
West," 265 ; exposure of Cardiil
giant, 266 ; his modem fossil, 269.

Maskelyne, Rev. Nevil, 152.

" Mathematical MootUy," founda-
tion of, 84.

Mathematics and exact sciences,
state of, in America, 402.

Maury, Matthew F., work of, 103.

McCook, Gen. A. D., 341.

McCormick, L. J., 132.

McCuUoeh, Hugh, 244, 402.

McMickan, Captain, of Cunard Line,
271.

McTavish, Governor, 91.

" M4chanique Celeste," first sight
of, 56.

Meier, John, 223.

Meridian conference of 1884, 226.

Mill, John Stuart, 272.

Mills, D. O., 183.

Miner and TxJly's "Fevers of the
Connecticut Valley," 33.

Monroe, Rev. Alexander H., 36 n.

Moore, Capt. W. S., 361.

Moore's Navigator, 17.

Morrill, Justin S., 124.

National Academy of Science, early
proceedings, 251 ; report of Geo-
logical Survey, 255 j report of
Forestry System, 261.

" National Intelligencer,'' letter in,
55.

Natural Philosophy, Mrs. Marcet's
Conversations on, 18.

Nautical Almanac, assistants on, 66 ;
in charge of, 120.

Naval Observatory, early history of,
102 ; work at, 109 ; conditions at,
110; civilian head proposed. 111 ;
views of administration in regard
to, 112 ; reports of eclipse of
1870, 113 ; visit of Emperor Dom
Pedro, 117; efforts to improve,
122; Board of Visitors appointed,
126 ; telescope of, 128 ; Congres-
sional action regarding new tele-
scope, 131 ; observations of satel-

422

INDEX

lites of Neptune, 136, 141 ; search
for companion of Frocyon, 138.

Negro, characteristics of, 346 ; edu-
cation of, 348.

Neptune, observations of the satel-
Utes of, 136, 141.

NewaU, R. S., 133.

Newcomb, John, father of Simon,
characteristics and marriage, 4.

Newcomb, Simon, the first, 2.

Newcomb, Judge Simon B., 2.

Newcomb, Prof. Simon, ancestry,
2, 3; parentage, 6; early educa-
tion at Bedeque, 9 ; begins study
of arithmetic, 10; influence of
books, 14-22 ; winter spent with
farmer Jefferson, 18; residence
at Yarmouth, 23 ; ancestral home,
23 ; begins study of medicine, 27 ;
manufacture of botanic medicine
under Dr. Foshay, 31, 32 ; joins
temperance lodge, 37 ; intimacy
with Parkin family, 39 ; first sight
of Smithsonian, 52 ; reading in
political economy, 53 ; study of
Newton's "Principia,"54; first at-
tempt at mathematical paper, 54 ;
letter in "National Intelligencer,"
65 ; Colonel Abert sends Lee's"Ta-
bles and Formulae," 56; letter
from Prof. L. J. Smith, 56 ; teach-
ing in a planter's family, 56 ; first
sight of " M^chanique Celeste,"
56 ; assistant on staff of Nautical
Almanac, 66 ; discussion of Dar-
win's " Origin of Species," 70 ; stu-
denfrin Lawrence Scientific School,
74 ; acquaintance with Dr. B. A.
Gonid, 78 ; friendship with Wil-
liam F. G. Bartlett, 83 ; journey
in 1860 to observe solar eclipse,
88 ; meets Governor Bamsey and
Edward Eggleston, 89 ; received
by Governor McTavish, 91 ; Sas-
katchewan journey, 92; candi-
date for professorship in Wash-
ington University, 95 ; application
for professorship in Naval Ob-
servatory, 97 ; early experience
at Observatory, 101 ; edits Yar-
nall's observations, 105 ; in charge
of mural circle, 107 ; journey to
observe 1869 eclipse, 113; new
transit circle, 114; investigation
of moon's motion, 115 ; visit of
Dom Pedro to Observatory, 117 ;

assumes charge of Nautical Al-
manac Office, 120 ; veiificatian of
satellites of Mars, 141 ; transit of
Venus expedition to Europe, 167 ;
expedition to Cape of Good Hope,
174; agent of Lick Observatory
trustees, 184; first meeting with
Schaeberle, 190; study of orbits
of asteroids, 195; problems of
astronomy, 198 ; motion of moon,
202; occultations of stars, 207;
offered Harvard Observatory di-
rectorship, 211 ; head of Nautical
Almanac Office, 214; policy of
office, 216, 233 ; computations for
Planet Tables, 216; assistants,
218 ; suggestions to Meridian Con-
ference, 226; computations re-
garding fixed stars, 230 ; member
Yale Alumni Association, 241 ;
member Washington Scientific
Club, 244 ; first trip to Europe,
271; meets Thomas Hughes, 272;
John Stuart Mill, 272; William
Ewart Gladstone, 273; General
Bumside, 273; attends banquet
of Boyal Society, 276 ; visit to
Lord Lister, 278 ; meets Prof.
Cayley, 280; Prof. J. C. Adams
calls, 281 ; determination of Gib-
raltar longitude, 284; visits
Greenwich, 285 ; friendship with
Sir George Airy, 285-289 ; visits
Edinburgh, 292; meets Prof.
Blackie, 294 ; joins party of Eng-
lish astronomers bound for Al-
geria, 295 ; stormy voyage, 296 ;
at Gribraltar, 297 ; Sb James An-
derson, an old acquaintance, 300 ;
Mediterranean trip, 802-305; Wil-
helm Forster, a Berlin acquaint-
ance, 306 ; meets great astronomer
Auwers, 306 ; visits Pulkova Ob-
servatory, 309; winter ride in
Bussia, 310 ; first meeting with
Hansen, 315 ; arrives in Paris
during German evacuation, 319 ;
visits Paris Observatory, 321 ;
meets Leverrier, 330; Washington
during Civil War and after, 334-
371 ; two days military service,
339 ; assassination of Lincoln, 344
attends trial of conspirators, 345
acquaintance with Sumner, 349
with President Garfield, 363
asked to devise means for cooling

INDEX

423

his sick chamber, 357; sngges-
tions for location of bullet, 358 ;
experience with eccentric theo-
rists, 381-389 ; assists in obtaining
entrance of American students to
French uniyersities, 396; object
lesson in regard to education in
mountain regions of South, 39'7 ;
studies in economics, 399; pub-
lishes "Critical Examination of
our Financial Policy during the
Southern Rebellion," 402 ; contri-
bution to " North American Re-
view," 402 ; conference with Prof.
Daniel C. Gilman, 403 ; contribu-
tions to economic literature : " A
Plain Man's Talk on the Labor
Question," " Principles of Politi-
cal Economy," 408; "Psychical
Research," 410-412.
Nixon, Thomas, 37, 41.

Occultism, 93.

Old Peake, janitor of the Smithso-
nian, 58.
Oldright, Mr., 53.
Oliver, James E., 72.
Ommaney, Sir Erastus, 295.

Paine, Thomas, 3.

Paradoxers, experience with, 382.

Paris Conference, conclusions of,
230 ; attacked by Prof. Boss and
S. C. Chandler, 230.

Paris Observatory, 321, 332.

Parkin, George R., 39.

Patent claim, a curious, 361.

Patterson, J. W., 352.

Peirce, Benjamin, professor of math-
ematics, 75 ; personality, 77, 78 ;
chairman of committee on meth-
ods of observing transit of Ve-
nus, 161 ; director of solar eclipse
expedition, 274 ; presence in Eng-
land valuable to British astrono-
mers, 277.

Peters, C. H. P., heads Transit of
Venus expedition, 139 ; Star Cata-
logue Case, 372 ; work on Ptole-
my's Catalogue, 380.

Photoheliograph, horizontal, 164.

Phrenology, study of, 14, 34.

Pickering, E. C, 126.

Pistor and Martin's transit circle,
105.

Poe, Gen. O. M., 352.

Powell, John W., 240 ; during Gar-
field's illness, 357.

" Principia," Newton's, 54.

Prooyon, search for companion of,
138 ; at Lick Observatory, 140.

Professors in Navy, origin of corps
of, 101.

" Psychical Research," 410.

Ptolemy's Star Catalogue, Petera's
work on,.380.

Pulkova Observatory, object glass
made by Alvan Clark & Sons,
144, 145; foundation and situa-
tion, 309-313.

Reed, Thomas B., 125.
Rhodes scholarships, 37.
Rodgers, Admiral John, 120.
Rogers, William B., 250.
Royal Society, banquet of, 275.
Runkle, John D., 1, 66.

Safe burglary conspiracy, 367.

Safford, Truman H., 67.

Sampson, Admiral W. T., 121.

Sands, Admiral, superintendent of
Naval Observatory, 112; retire-
ment, 116; assists in obtaining
new telescope, 130.

Sauty, de, cable operator at Gibral-
tar, 300.

Schaeberle, assistant to Prof. Hol-
den, 190.

Schofield, J. M., 96.

Schurman, Caleb, 11.

Schurman, Jacob Gould, 11 n.

Scientific Club, 244.

Scudder, Samuel H., 88.

Shepherd, Alexander H., career,
864r-371.

Sherman, Gen. W. T., 243.

Sibley, J. Langdon, 76.

Smith, James, circle squarer, 387.

Smithson, James, 235.

Smithsonian Institution, policy of,
235, 286 ; diificulties in adminis-
tration, 237 ; expansion of scope,
240.

Smyth, Prof. C. Piazzi, 293.

Smyth, Admiral W. H., 152.

Sophocles, Evangelinus Apostolides,
75.

Standard time, adoption of, 225,
226.

Stanton, Edwin M., 336 ; his tireless
energy, 337 ; his law of war, 338.

424

INDEX

Star Catalogne case, the great,

372.
Steeves, Isaac, 38.
Stmve, Otto, 144, 309.
Stmve, Wilhelm, 312.
Strnve, Bussian minister at Wash-

in^on, 312.
Sudler, Dr. Arthur E., 50.
Snimier, Charles, characteristics,

349, 350; kills an incipient

" Academy," 352.
Sylvester, Prof. J. J., 403.

Telescope, horizontal, planned by
Prof. Winlock, 163.

Thomson, Sir William, 248.

TiUey, Sir Leonard, 40.

Tracy, Benjamin, 123.

Transit of Venus, early observa-
tions of, 151 ; observed by Mason
and Dixon, 153 ; Hell's alleged
forgeries, 157; preparation for
observation of, 160; Committee
of National Academy of Sciences
to consider subject, 161 ; transit
commission, 163 ; appropriation
for observation station, 170, 171,
174 ; valne of observations, 173 ;
observations at Cape Town, 177 ;
publication of observations, 178.

Tremblay, Dom de la, 395.

Tuttle, H. P.,192.

Tyndall, Prof., 296.

Van Vleck, Prof., 73.

Wagner, Dr., 315.

Wallace, Gen. Lew, 339.

Washburn, Mr., minister to Paris,
320.

Washington, during the Civil War,
334; newsboys of, 336; Early's
raid on, 339; after the fall of
Richmond, 343; Shepherd re-
gime, 363 ; the new city, 366.

Weiss, director of Vienna Observa-
tory, 157.

WeUes, Gideon, 111.

Wells, David A., 405.

White House, incidents at, during
Garfield's illness, 357.

Whitney, WiUiam C, 123.

Williams, Sir Fenwick, 298.

WUson, Henry, 250.

Winlock, Prof. Joseph, superin-
tendent Nautical Almanac, 59,
61 ; personality, 65 ; constructs
instrument for astronomical pho-
tography, 163.

Wolf, Prof. Charles, 144.

Woodward, Dr. J. J., 357.

Wright, Chauncey, 70.

Wright, Gen. H. 6., 341.

Yale Alumni Association, 241.
Yamall, Prof. M., characteristics,
101 ; observations of, 105.

EUctrotyped and printed ly H. O. Hmghton &• Co.
Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A.

liiliil

'!l I lil I I!

ipilil
■■iiii

ijlll'